Saturday Sundries | Wicked wicket hauls, ducks aplenty and the rest from the lower grades

This week, we perused PlayHQ to single out the best individual efforts, unwanted statistics and other anomalies from across Cricket Shepparton’s lower divisions.

News photographer Aydin Payne was behind the lens for the C-grade contest between Murchison and Central Park-St Brendan’s.

Corey blimey

Katandra’s Corey Hickford has had quite the fortnight on the oval.

The Eagles’ pace bowler dropped down into B-grade due to Katandra assuming the bye in A-grade, proving to be a flat-track bully in the tier below his usual post.

First, he top-scored for his side with 24 in at six against Pine Lodge.

Afterwards, he grabbed the ball and wasted no time slicing through the Lodgers’ order to collect 7-48 ― absurd figures, most would agree.

Was he done there? No dice.

Hickford was elevated up the order to four in Katandra’s second innings, crafting 52 off 106 balls to once again make the Eagles’ highest individual total.

It’s not the worst way to keep the legs ticking over during the break.

Head down, nothing silly

Is there anything worse than copping a jaffa first up?

Pine Lodge D-grader Cobey Aynsley probably doesn’t think so.

With his side facing the task of chasing down Euroa’s score of 161, the former Stanhope football coach would’ve been licking his lips at the prospect of peeling off a few at Kialla West Recreation Reserve.

One ball later, he was gone, clean bowled at the first attempt.

Yes, golden ducks happen every week ― this is not special ― but the painful aspect about Aynsley’s situation is Pine Lodge chased down the runs in less than 15 overs with no further wickets.

Beauden Webber slashed 60 not out, while Braydon Kearns came two short of a ton, cranking 23 boundaries and seven maximums between them.

Talk about missing out ...

Teddy bear picnic

There was a theme to Central Park-St Brendan’s SJ Perry Shield middle order against Northerners.

Shepparton Football Club guns made up the Tigers’ guts, with Bears Ted Lindon, Tanner Madigan and Jhett Cooper wielding the bat at four, five and six.

Are they as good with a Kookaburra, Gray Nicholls or whatever miscellaneous willow they held as they are with the Sherrin?

It’s hard to say.

However, youngsters Madigan and Cooper had the wood over their footy coach on the day, venturing into the 30s, while Lindon settled for six off the stick.

Some light digging may evolve when the Bears next meet for a pre-season run around the track.

Dux of their class

This week C-grade holds an unwanted title of most ducks across any of Cricket Shepparton’s grades.

Unsurprisingly, this is not an often talked about metric ― but it does stick out on the stats sheet.

A total of 13 players walked without scoring in Saturday’s Jim McGregor Shield action, so we thought we’d go back to the lab and crunch the numbers on it.

Of the 57 wickets to fall across four games, 22.807 per cent were ducks.

With close to a quarter of the division’s dismissals coming in the form of a globe, Pine Lodge is the culprit for driving up the average as five of its players ducked for cover in a heavy loss to Northerners.

Shout out to Jets bowler Tim Brett, who was responsible for three goose eggs during his 5-7 off eight overs.

Fernando’s tyranny

One man has been paramount to Pine Lodge’s reign at the top of B-grade this season: Tiron Fernando.

Fernando has Cricket Shepparton’s second-best return rate with the ball with 17 wickets at 10.24, second only to Waaia A-grade opener Jesse Trower.

The superstar Lodger flashed his teeth in his side’s two-day triumph over Katandra most recently, chalking up three poles in the first innings and four in the next to push Pine Lodge to the top of the tree.

It begs a question to be asked.

If the Lodgers had a Haisman Shield side, would Fernando continue to wreak havoc and have the cherry hooping, dipping and bamboozling as efficiently as he does in the Clyde Young Shield?

We’re not likely to ever know the outcome of this, but one thing is for sure ― Pine Lodge has a serious bowler in its arsenal.