ORANGE’S “Celebrity” XI lost out to the Orange District Cricket Association team at Wade Park on Friday night, falling to the cricketers by 19 runs.
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The social game was played under the adapted rules of Cricket Australia’s new Twenty20 Blast program; everyone bats and bowls, each pair of batters occupy the crease for two overs and the opposition team receives five runs for each wicket that falls. Runs hit straight into a designated zone are doubled.
Batting first, the majority of the Orange XI chipped in with Cavaliers’ Tom Aggett (19), CYMS’ Matt Baker (16), Waratahs’ Angus Howarth (15) and Kinross’s Stu Crisp (18) all playing their part in scoring 4-140 from their 12 overs.
Combined with the 30 bonus runs received from the Celebrity innings, the Orange XI finished with 4-170.
Several of the celebrities produced John Howard-esque bowling, while Orange Tigers AFL star Michael Rothnie proved taking chest marks is not conducive to cricket, dropping two sitters on the boundary.
In reply, Central Western Daily digital editor Dave Neil and Orange CYMS league tag gun Tori Moore starred for the Celebrity XI with the bat, scoring 33 and 22 respectively, despite the former unashamedly farming the strike from his partner, CWD sports journalist Nick McGrath.
McGrath (4) faced just three of the pair’s allotted 12 balls, and duly missed two of them, sneaking an inside edge on the third.
Councillor Jason Hamling, also the Celebrity XI skipper, proved his bark was worse than his bite, facing nine balls for just seven runs while Orange City Life’s Jamie Stedman (13), state member for Orange Andrew Gee (11) and Cricket NSW’s Matt Tabbernor (11) all hit double figures as well.
The Celebrity XI scored 6-131, but combined with 20 bonus runs from Orange’s innings they were left 19 runs short at 6-151.
“I held a press conference (on Sunday) to resign as Celebrity skipper. No one showed up,” Hamling laughed.
“It was great fun, and it gives you a good insight into what happens in the middle of Wade Park. It’s a lot harder than it looks.”
“It was good fun, better for us getting the win,” ODCA skipper Phil Dodds added.
“We all enjoyed it though, it was a good bit of fun and socially a good afternoon."
