HDCA claims third place after mixed Creighton Cup results

The HDCA side began their campaign over the weekend with a gargantuan task, as they were scheduled to face Illawarra in Saturday's first round.

"Before the formation of the new zone, Greater Illawarra, which we're now a part of with Shoalhaven and the South Coast, Illawarra was a zone themselves," HDCA director of senior men's cricket and rep player, Jack Whitfield, said.

"So that Illawarra side that we played is an old zone side, and we're just a district side. So they've got 10 or 11 First Grade teams that they get to pick from, where we've got six, with two pretty new ones.

"So there's a bit of a size difference, it's a bit of David and Goliath in some respects."

That, Whitfield added, should take nothing away from the sterling performance of their opponents.

After the HDCA won the toss and chose to bat first at Willoughby Park in northeastern Sydney, the players struggled to shake off the rust which was caused by more than three weeks of cancelled cricket.

This, combined with Illawarra's exceptional bowling on the day, portended poorly for the HDCA, which was subsequently rolled for 76.

Whitfield was the highest scorer of the innings with 21, while Mitchell Wright (20) was the only other batter to reach double figures.

In response, it took Illawarra less than 20 overs to reach the target, for the loss of four wickets. And while the run chase concluded quickly, Whitfield pointed out that the bowlers had performed well despite the small total they were defending.

Overnight, the team got together to discuss what had gone wrong in the first game, and how they could correct course ahead of the third-versus-fourth decider against Shoalhaven the next day.

"Grant Pike, who skippered the side over the weekend, was pretty clear," Whitfield said.

"We had a game plan on Saturday, we weren't able to fulfil it, but we felt if we stuck to our game plan, we could play our best cricket. We know that, pound for pound, we can compete."

The team certainly found its form on Sunday, as Shoalhaven won the toss and elected to bat first.

Matt Pike, who opened the bowling for the HDCA, produced a brilliant spell with the new ball in which he sent both opening batters packing.

He finished the innings with 2-9 from six overs, which included three maidens.

Though Dale Young (3-50) and Whitfield himself (3-15) took more wickets, Pike's spell broke the innings open and put Shoalhaven on the back foot from the outset.

"Matty Pike is probably the standout fast bowler in Highlands cricket at the moment," Whitfield said.

"He often gets selected for higher honours, like the Country Championships side which they'll select from that competition.

"Matty's a handful, as someone who can speak from experience."

Pike was ably supported by a number of his fresh-faced teammates, including Young, Blake Denney, and Mason King, who Whitfield all expects to remain strong performers for the HDCA in years to come.

"They're only 20 years old, those guys, playing in Open Men's rep," he said.

"They've come up through the HDCA age groups all playing together, and a lot of us are getting on a bit now. Some of us have been playing this kind of rep for 10 years, we can't play it forever, so we had a few new faces in that side."

The HDCA batters had clearly learnt their lesson after Saturday's drubbing, and made short work of the total in just 36.3 overs.

Once again, Whitfield top scored - this time with 35 - but similar contributions from Dale Wellington (34) at the top of the order, along with Grant Pike (33 not out) and Alex Debs (26 not out) saw the side home comfortably, and secured a third-place finish.

While this was not the result Whitfield and the HDCA team had hoped for from the Creighton Cup, he praised Illawarra for its performance.

"We'll take [third place], I don't think we'd be happy with it," Whitfield said.

"I think if you're happy with third place, you're probably better off not playing rep cricket. We wanted to go down and win, of course we did, but we let ourselves down on Saturday and the best we could then get was third.

"I think, realistically, maybe we can go toe-to-toe with Illawarra in years to come, maybe we can sit second in those rankings ... but all credit to Illawarra, they came down and played the cricket that they can play and they got the trophy and deserved it."

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