Wanderers v St Paul’s School
Wanderers was formed in Queensland during 1933 by the then Governor of Queensland, Sir Leslie Wilson, with the aim to encourage young people to play and enjoy the game of cricket. Today the Club plays more than 20 mid-week matches each Summer, mostly against schools in the State's south-east, and undertakes an annual 12-day playing and coaching tour of country centres. Tours in recent years have taken Wanderers west to Eromanga, South to Yetman and North to Charters Towers.
The Club relies upon its own fund-raising resources and sponsors to finance its activities including supporting youngsters in coaching clinics and on tours.
16 February 2022 at St Paul’s School
A beautiful day greeted Wanderers at St Paul’s School, Bald Hills. Warm conditions were kept at bay by a nice zephyr making it an ideal day for cricket. Harry Carroll got the visitors off to a flyer, blasting 29 from 14 in a 39-run partnership with Jet Liebke, but the partnership came to a halt when Jake Storer got one through Harry’s defences and clipped the top of the stumps at the end of the 4th over. Connor Nowlan then joined Liebke in a dominant display of batting. The pair added 114 in 12 overs to take Wanderers to drinks on 1/153, bringing up individual 50s along the way.
After drinks, St Paul’s bowlers Michael Richards and Dan Johnstone restricted Wanderers to 15 off five overs before Nowlan got a beauty from Johnstone and was bowled for a 60-ball 83 (11 fours and 4 sixes) ending the 138-run partnership with Liebke. Liebke' s two hour stay ended on 73 when the last ball of Mitch Merritt’s first over made it a trio of wickets “Bowled”. Jake Storer picked up his second wicket just six balls later when keeper Ethan Lawson got under a top edge from Max Edmondson; Wanderers 4/220 with 20 to go.
It was two wickets in five balls in the 38/39th overs when spinner, Logan Stansfield had Sam Geyer caught by Billy Jackson and Mitch Merritt picked up his second via a C&B. The latter victim was a belligerent Janu Varatharajan who pummeled 51 from 30 including 4 fours and 3 sixes. Despite some comedic running between wickets, Shrey Garg and Josh Durkin stayed together long enough to take Wanderers past 300 in the 41st over, but a few balls later, Josh Durkin ran past one off Stansfield and was stumped by Lawson. Jason Nowlan and Shrey partnered for 38 from 34 before Dan Johnstone returned to the attack and dismissed both in the 47th over, Jason to a well-judged catch by Eric Rollason and Shrey bowled. Gowtham Shathieskumar claimed the final wicket when Hudson McCarthy pouched one. Wanderers all out for 341 from 47.3 overs.
A sumptuous lunch was provided by the Hosts and words of appreciation exchanged by St Paul’s coach Andrew Thomas and Wanderers’ Scorer/Manager-for-the-day, Gian Taviani.
The chase started reasonably well for St Paul’s but turned sour quickly with the loss of three wickets in 10 minutes between the 5th and 8th overs. Opening bowler, Damon Gale bowled beautifully in his 5 over spell and picked up the first wicket then, a brace of catches to Connor Nowlan off Josh Durkin completed the mini-collapse. The second catch an absolute screamer overhead! Nathan Westaway and Eric Rollason combined for 27 for the 4th wicket before an edge by Rollason off the last ball of Colin Quigley’s third over was snavelled by Liebke standing up to the stumps.
Harry Carroll grabbed his first wicket 5 balls after drinks to make it 5/66. Westaway then found a willing partner in Dan Johnstone for a 29 run, 6th wicket stand. All seemed to be going well with Westaway punishing bad balls and particularly brutal on anything short. Then, Shrey Garg snuck one under Johnstone’s bat and the stumps were scattered. Two balls later, the new batsman dragged his foot just out and an alert Liebke whipped them off; 7/95. Four overs later, it was Garg again. A missed sweep shot by Westaway struck him on the pad and he was adjudged LBW for a well made 46 from 51 balls, then from the last ball of the over a flat-bat pull was caught beautifully by Janu Varatharajan in close at mid-wicket. Five balls later it was Varatharajan again, scattering the stumps to bring the innings to a close on 112.
A win to Wanderers by 229 runs.
