Oliver Boge is continuing a proud family tradition of excellence in cricket and last weekend, the 15-year-old, whose father David is a former seven times winner of the Tallon Medal for Bundaberg Cricket’s Division 1 Best and Fairest, produced two Man of the Match performances for Brothers.
On Saturday, he claimed 2-11, sharing the bowling honours with fellow under-16’s Nick Clarke (3-12) and Toby Lamond (2-11) as they sent Isis packing for 78, with the other two bowling wickets to fall also taken by fellow juniors Ben Trebbin and Pat Marshman.
He then he scored an unbeaten 40 to lead Brothers to their first win of the season in the Division after they had again been reeling at 3-3.
Oliver backed it up in Division 2 on Sunday, cracking an unbeaten 22 from 11 balls at the end of the innings against Norths after his dad and opener had contributed 57 to lay the platform in a second wicket partnership of 123 with Mitch Parsons (93), helping them to a total of 7-226.
Oliver then cut a swathe of destruction through Norths’ middle and lower order, snaring 5-15 from 6.3 overs as Norths were bowled over for 163.
By this win, Brothers joined Norths in equal-second place, behind run-away leaders Waves, who powered on with opener Kyle Stallan blasting them to a five-wicket triumph over East Bundy Magpies with an unconquered 88.
Meanwhile, Brett Woodward was a hero for YMCA as they shored up fourth place in Division 3 with a 40-run dispatch of Norths, coming in at No. 10 with his team reeling at 8-51 and striking 56 from just 41 balls to lead them to a still modest total of 131.
He then took the new ball in tandem with his son Logan, who plays for Norths in Division 2, and then snared 2-20 and 1-34 respectively as Norths imploded for a mere 91.
Starting today in Toowoomba, Bundaberg’s Arden Lankowski, Brendan Handley, and Nathan Van Eekeren will be vying for places in the Queensland team for the Australian Country Championships when they represent North against South in the XXXX Shield.
Norths will sorely miss Brendan and Nathan when they meet Waves in a Rum City Foods Division 1 Premiership top of the table showdown at Salter Oval tomorrow, starting at 11am.
East Bundy Magpies will also be without Arden for their clash with the win-less Brothers.
Junior fixtures also resume tomorrow after the Christmas School Holidays recess following several washed out rounds in November-December.
Meanwhile, this Sunday, Bundaberg’s Under-16, 14 and 12 sides will travel to Gympie to play the hosts in the fourth round of the Wide Bay Junior Championships.
SURF LIFE SAVING
Elliott Heads will be seeking to continue their amazing success at last year’s Surf Life Saving Queensland Wide Bay Capricorn Branch Senior Championships when the 2022 version takes centre-stage at Emu Park this weekend.
Twelve months ago, the Heads completed an historic clean sweep of the silverware at the event at Nielson Park, the Gillian Harvey Championship Shield with 764 points, well in advance of Hervey Bay 224, the William Cumming Handicap Championships Shield with 938.75, the Warren Massey Senior Championship Shield for the first time, the Alan Nixon Senior Handicap Champion Shield, the Ron Harding Masters Championship Shield, and John Faircloth Masters Handicap Champion Shield
Competition gets under way at 9am tomorrow, running throughout the day, and resuming at 9am Sunday and concluding with the March Past in the early afternoon.
HORSE RACING
Bundaberg will be beamed throughout Australia and abroad with the Rum City Foods TAB Race Meeting at Thabeban Park tomorrow with a bumper six-race -program.
Champion Bundaberg trainer Darryl Gardiner again has a strong hand with seven runners across four events, and he could again trifecta the feature event, the Simplot Open Handicap with his 2021 Bundaberg Cup winner Wrecking Ball, which boasts five wins from six starts on the track, Crisscross and Dolci.
But widely travelled Moranbah maestro Bevan Johnson also has four very well credentialled runners on the card, including two Open Handicap contenders, 10-year-oldm ironhorse Fab’s Cowboy, a winner of 45 of his 118 starts and $352,100 in prizemoney, and American Genius, which ran third on debut in the Maribyrnong Trial at Flemington in October 2016 and has won 11 races from Country Victoria to Darwin and $212,640 in stake earnings.
Darryl also has good prospects with Shenzi and Blonde’s Day Out in the Pacific West Benchmark 60 Handicap, and Homecall in the Safrie’s Benchmark 50 Handicap, but his remaining starter, Damn Phenomenal would need to improve dramatically to be a chance in the Rum City Foods QTIS Maiden Plate.
Homecall’s dangers include the Lyn Petersen trained Toy Whitty, a three-year-old which has been runner-up at her past two outings and is a great-grand-daughter of 1975 Golden Slipper winner Toy Show and half-sister and stable-mate to Toy Blaze, which won a Three-Year-Old Maiden at Rockhampton yesterday.
Bittergreymagic, from the stables of top Rockhampton trainer Alan Jones, appeals in the Masterfoods Benchmark 55 Handicap, while Dukatti, which is trained in Eidsvold by Bob Murray, will take a power of beating in the New Age Caravans Bundaberg Benchmark 45 Handicap, and former Victorian Ruski, which has a second, three thirds and a fourth from six appearances since being purchased by another Bundaberg mentor William Melvin, is the form runner in the Maiden.
PARKRUN
Pocket dynamo 15-year-old Tom Parton produced a superb performance to win Saturday’s Bargara Parkrun 5km event in a slick 18min52sec in a class field of 266 runners and walkers of all ages.
Tom has competed in 95 of Bargara’s 174 Parkruns since its inception on 27th January 2018, when he placed 15th.
He has won the event on 12 occasions, the first as an 11-year-old back on 28th April 2018, and he has only missed the top 10 on 10 occasions.
A week earlier, Richard Koech celebrated his 250th Parkrun with his fourth straight victory in a dominant 12 months in the event, taking his record during that time to 28 wins, nine seconds, three thirds and one fifth from 42 races, volunteering as a “tail-walker” on the other occasion.
GOLF
Excitement is reaching fever-pitch for Bundaberg Golf Club’s Burnett Cup, which is Wide Bay Golf’s Premier Event, and which is now in its 52nd year with a Player Prize Pool of $7,200, and will blast off with the first round tomorrow.
The draw will not be released until after the Calcutta tonight, but Shaun Allen and Jeremy Zahl are the defending champions.
The first tee-offs will be at 7am.
SOFTBALL
Coral Coast/Hervey Bay Softball Association fixtures will finally resume after the Christmas Holidays with a double-header this weekend.
In the A Grade Ladies League, there are two matches at Brothers Sports Complex tomorrow, both at 4.10pm with two-times defending champions Brothers United Firesticks up against Terrors, and Waves Tsunamis taking on Bargara Bullets, but all four teams have a bye on Sunday.
Tomorrow’s three A Grade Men’s matches are also at Brothers, with Terrors having the double-header, suiting up against a hungry Brothers United Heat at 12.30pm, then backing up against Waves Schooners at 2.20pm, when Maryborough/West and Misfits also square off.
On Sunday, Waves Schooners go head-to-head with Maryborough/West at Brothers at 10.40am, while in Hervey Bay, Terrors take to the diamond against Misfits at 2pm.
There will also be selection trials for under-14 boys and girls at 3.40pm and 4pm respectively on Sunday.
GREYHOUNDS
After back-to-back unplaced runs at Albion Park, Fogelberg made it five straight wins at Thabeban Park with a dashing victory for his Takura trainer David Plummer in the rich Australia Day Cup Final at this week’s Bundaberg meeting.
The Favourite, paying $2.10, the brindle dog made it 21 wins, 6 seconds and 5 thirds from 43 starts, snaring the $3,055 winner’s purse, with Kerry Bussian’s litter siblings outsiders Faster Than Hoot and Hoot Hoot Go filling the minor placings.
David also took out a TAB 5th Grade Heat with Kotiro Koura, which returned to her best.
Pacific Haven trainer Greg Kennedy and Bundaberg’s Paul Burgess each also picked up doubles on the day, with Paul saluting the judge with Wildash Macie snapping a 20-race losing streak dating back to November 2020 in the Mixed 3rd/4th Grade, and Come on Kenny getting the money on track debut at his first start for him and first outing since 5th July last year in the Terry Signs 5th Grade Heat after earlier victories at Albion Park (twice), Ipswich and Grafton.
Greg prevailed with favourite Spitfire Speed (Novice Non-Penalty) and $9 outsider Fluro Girl in the Great Northern 5th Grade Heat.
After having been bridesmaid at 10 of his first 27 starts, at Bundaberg on debut in August and the rest at Ipswich, Double Steel finally broke through for his star Yamanto trainer Peter O’Reilly in the TAB Maiden.
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