After some well attended trainings over several weeks a squad was selected to represent island cricket at Victor Harbor at the Meyer Shield carnival last weekend. Thanks to Ian Green and Elders for supplying team shirts which if nothing else made us look like a team of winners and secondly Sealink for their sponsorship for our travel. Without this sort of assistance our association would struggle to afford to send a squad away each year.

On Saturday we took on Murray Towns at Port Elliot and after winning the toss we were looking to get a competitive score on the board. Unfortunately Ben Wilks the only one in the top five to make much of a start with 22.

Rick Morris was solid in the middle and with wickets falling rapidly at the other end it was Paul Green who was able to form a partnership with Rick and get us to a reasonable score of 123 runs on a slow oval, Rick ending up not out on 36 and Paul on 31 runs. After lunch the sun came out, hardened the oval and gave Murray Towns an immediate advantage. We were only able to take three wickets giving them a fairly easy chase. Mick Guerson took one, and two of our youngest players in Ben Lock and Josh Bates in his first carnival took the other two.

Sunday was going to be our chance to redeem ourselves against Great Southern at Encounter Bay on a turf wicket but after losing the toss we were straight onto the back foot. Ben Wilks must have snuck out in the night and done some pitch tampering because his bowling had the opposition mesmerised - 6 for 33 off 10 overs.

Stuart Donaghy bowled well with 1 for 39 off 10 overs and Mick Guerson chipped in with 1 wicket also. Great Southern posted a score of 235 on a hard fast oval so the boys rated themselves as a chance. Again we did not get off to a good start losing a couple of quick wickets but when Clayton Morrison and Colin Billet teamed up, the momentum started to swing back towards the Islanders. Unfortunately Great Southern bounced back taking three quick wickets in the middle order. Josh Lade tried to steady the ship and was looking good until he was stumped trying to lift the run rate. Ben Lock and Paul Green gave us a chance at the end with some entertaining big hitting but were unable to keep it up with KI falling short of their total making 173. Top scores were Colin Billet 39, Josh Lade 38, and Ben Lock an exciting 35n.o.

We may not have achieved the results we were hoping for when we left the Island but I am sure that we all learnt something that will help us become better cricketers as it is always an eye opener to play at higher level.

Mark Virgo, team manager