Picton first grade has shown true grit by holding Bowral to an unlikely draw in Saturday’s first grade showdown at Bradman Oval.

Although in the midst of a game themselves, Bowral were that confident they prematurely started talking about their title chances and next weeks game against Moss Vale. That gave Picton an opportunity to demonstrate some of the fight that still very much remains in their efforts, to threaten in this seasons competition.

After rolling Picton for 144 on day one and blasting 3-166 off 27 overs, Bowral expected to quickly drive home the advantage on day two and walk away with an outright victory.

On day two Bowral surged away to 5 (Dec) for 249 off only 41 overs, representing a 105 run 1st Innings lead, promptly putting Picton back into the firing line.

But cricket is a great leveller.

Some excellent fast bowling from Bowral saw Picton in dire straights at 8 for 106, with Hodges on a hatrick. From the moment John Schofield dug out the hat-trick ball yorker from Hodges, Picton dug-in and slowly but surely batted through some extraordinary bowling efforts, which saw Bowral literally flapping their wings.

This was demonstrated several times by the extended flapping arms of Daniel Babula AKA Babs the fallen eagle, during his run up to the batsmen, just before the point of delivery.

He flapped for 20 runs without a wicket off four overs, after bowling impeccably in his first spell of 10-4-0-17, without the wings.

Picton’s Matthew Quinn returned to form with an unbeaten 46 Not Out and together with a very impressive knock from Picton’s highest scorer John Schofield (55 Not Out) they put on 99 runs off 21 overs, before the game was declared a draw. That rear guard 9th wicket knock also delivered 2 important bonus points to Picton and prevented not only an outright victory being handed to Bowral, but it also prevented Bowral from getting a further bonus point for getting nine wickets in Picton’s 2nd Innings.