As many of you may already be aware plenty of our fellow club members (including myself having been talked into it Saturday night) will be all growing moustaches during the month of November Movember, raising valuable funds for a number of major men’s health issues. 

Getting involved in it is pretty easy and you can contribute as a sponsor or as a fellow feral.

How do you get involved?
You can register as a Mo Bro or a Mo Sis to help raise money. Lads its pretty simple, don’t shave your tash for a month. Girls, I don’t know what you guys do as I haven’t read the website. To register go to http://www.movember.com.au/ , register, Australia and Join A Team. Our Team details are:

• Team Name: Mo Bros
• Team Registration No.: 5732
• Team Captain: Dean Shay
• Captain’s Email Address: dshay.ballina@ljh.com.au

I will endeavour to post some more information about how you can sponsor any of the boys in the next day or so.

    It promises to be an interesting month ahead as we discover who the real cavemen among us.

 The cricket would like to welcome on board a new sponsor for the 2006-2007 season in Ballina Alarms. Ballina Alarms are a new company in town and current player Tim Hughes is in charge of the Ballina office. If anyone would like any work done please contact Tim on 02 66860777 or tim@cavsecurity.com.au. The sponsorship money is very much appreciated and will be put to good use this year to purchase new equipment and continue to upgrade the turf pitch at Kingsford Smith Park.

What a tight one. It went down to the wire like I thought it would. Donny showed enormous amounts of concentration to bat till after tea for what was a match winning 42 runs. In particular his tactic to not run singles proved a masterstroke in conserving his energy levels. The Hose backed Donny up with a sparkling 34 while various batsmen chipped in with starts. Particular mention goes to the younger brigade , Dan, Potts, Ben & Abe Crawford whom hung tough when it mattered most, with fierce leg spin from one end & quicks at the other coupled with the stand in opposition skipper moving the field every ball, they held their nerve & guided us home to a 3 run win. A big thanks to Wayno who came & batted despite having the 3 kids to look after, thanks also to Sue H & bro Hose for helping out. ” UP THE BAR “

Well I am back in 2nd grade & feel very priviliged to be skipper of a talented mix of both youth & experience. I arrived at 12.20pm for a 1pm start, (mental note to self “it’s 2nd grade you only need to turn up at 12.59pm”), needless to say I sat alone for 20 minutes to contemplate the days play. No need to look at the pitch….it’s concrete with a green carpet on it…..should be a flat track I say to myself. At 12.55 I try get the team together for a pep talk & to welcome in the new season, at 1pm everyone finally has shoes on & in a round about way we decide we are going to win the comp ….EASY. Parksey, aka Robert Parkes an old foe from another era in 1st grade, is the opposing skipper, he is 120 kg & I get a glimpse of exactly where my career is heading. He wins the toss & decides to make first use of the well prepared wicket.

I open with Nathan “slippers” Mills & Tess-tickle, 2 young 6ft plus tearaways, they both bowl well & in particular “slippers”, he soon finds an edge & Our Don thrusts out a right glove & takes a sharp reflex chance low to his right. He soon after deceives everyone with a slower ball to trap a batsman whom resembled a rabbit in the headlights…out LBW.

Other highlights included the silver fox Mick Lacey clean bowling their dangerous big hitter, Potts taking a one handed juggling caught & bowled, Ben “butters” Crawford dropping a dolly only to redeem himself with the ball claiming 3 scalps including a lovely piece of slipsmanship from yours truely, & the Hose Porter who bowled beautifully with some late dipping offies that at times hypnotised the batsman.

Parksey batted out the day showing experience however we steadily take wickets all day & bowl their other 10 batsmen out for 114, they scored 179.

We had about 6 overs to face in fading light & the 2 life members Hose & Wayno Porter were my openers, now fading light, a quick bowler, a red ball on a green background is not ideal for Hose so I gave him the option of swapping with Our Don, Tony stared upwards & thought long & hard, it was not until I was in my car heading home it dawned on me….The Hose was not looking at the encroaching shadows & angle of the sun, no way, what hose was doing was staring right through the balcony of the Bangalow Bowlo & assessing how many schooners he could neck in the ensuing change of innings & 6 overs . Hose 1 - skipper 0. Anyway Donny & Wayno put on 9 with no loss & did a marvelous job.

All is in readiness for a gutsy run chase on Saturday, lets just hope the pitch is as well prepared.

Stewy took 2 screamers on Saturday against Bangalow.

1st Grade vs Lennox Head at K.S.Sth (Sat 7th & 14th Oct ) 12.30pm start.

D.Elphick(c), Brett Crawford, P.Dalli, L.Shay, B.Lacey ,K.Hamilton, M.Newstead, J.Waugh, L.Wagland., D.Thick , M.Gabriel.

2nd Grade vs Bangalow at Bang 1 (Sat 7th & 14th Oct) 1.00pm start

J.Stewart ©, T.Porter, ,D.Reilly, M.Lacey, D.Hogden, .,W.Porter., ,A.Crawford , Ben Crawford, K.Tyson, N.Mills, D.Tickle.

3rd Grade vs Alstonville Gold at Chickiba (Sat 7th & 14th Oct ) 1.00pm start.

D.Kapeen©, I.Potter, C.Atkinson, A.Woodman, J.Irwin, L.Fahey, L.Hamilton, M.Hamilton, J.Fosterling, S.Fosterling

4th Grade vs Lennox Head at Williams Res (Sat 7th Oct) 12.30pm start.

D.Caldwell©, R.Irvine, G.Prior, P.Thomas, R.Warburton, B.Irvine, P.Boland, G.Gilmore, A.Maiden, L.Savill, A.Lane.

FEES NOW DUE

If unavailable (or available and not named) contact club captain Phil Dalli on 66876458 or 0428289440.

The club will again be hosting a milo-have-a-go competition this year for kids aged between 5 & 9. Anyone ineterested in playing this year should contact Brett Crawford via email: president@upthebar.com or 0266811531 or mob: 0419815259.

Sign on for Juniors and Seniors will be held at the Ballina RSL Bowling Club on 1st September coomencing at 6.00pm. Night bowls will be available for anyone interested. All new players are welcome including any new juniors that would like to play.

Contact Brett Crawford 0266811531 or 0419815259

The AGM will be held on Friday 28th July at 54 Silvergull Dve East Ballina. The club will be providing the BBQ and beer for the evening. The meeting will commence at 6.00pm.

Further enquiries contact  President Brett Crawford 0419815259, 0266811531.

The Tintenbar East Ballina 1st grade side have added another major premiership win to their mantle piece with a victory over defending premiers Souths. The first day was washed out and with only one day to play (100 overs) a draw seemed the most likely of results therefore handing Souths victory as a result of finishing higher on the ladder.

Tintenbar started well by winning and the toss and sending Souths in a slow wicket at Oakes Oval, however things were not going to plan and at lunch the boys had dropped 4 catches with Souths 1 for 89. After lunch the game turned and Souths were bundled out for 194 leaving the Bar boys the hard task of chasing the target down in 32 overs.

The chase started superbly with Phil Dalli and Brett Crawford spanking the ball to all parts of the ground putting on 75 off 10 overs. Tintenbar then lost 3 quick wickets however it was Mick Gabriel who took the game away from the defending premiers with a superb 67 in quick time and his 80 run partnership with captain Duncan Elphick was the match winning partnership. Well done boys.

UP THE BAR.