By Tim Doutré
ALTONA and Werribee’s Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association season opener produced a quality contest and pitted former Altona captain David Wolfe against his old side for the first time.
The As went into the field first at Werribee’s Frank Kirk Oval, but it was the home side that looked the goods early as it battled its way to 186.
Wolfe was in good form at the crease for his new side, giving Altona’s new captain, John Varchione, cause for concern before he eventually fell for 63.
“He batted really well. It was obviously good to get him because he was looking pretty dangerous there,” Varchione said.
“We don’t know if it (186) is going to be enough runs. I think we had them at 1/100 at one stage so it was good to pull them back.
“The wicket played really well for the first game and the outfield is pretty quick so to keep them at 186 runs was a good effort.”
After the Werribee side cruised to 1/100 it took a Matthew Boglis dazzler to turn the tide. “We took a few, I think 5/30, just before tea to get us back into the game.
“Matthew Boglis bowled someone around their legs and then Wolfe went a couple overs later, Gordon (MacFarlane) bowled him,” Varchione said. “Then with the new batsmen in it was just about keeping the pressure on. Werribee have a pretty young team as well so it was all about pressure.”
MacFarlane and Boglis were the pick of the Altona bowlers taking three and two wickets respectively.
The visitors, with time left at the end of the day, were sent in to bat and as is so often the case, the pressure was on the batsmen late in the day with two wickets falling as a result. “We had 16 overs to bat last night, which was a bonus, but the two wickets wasn’t ideal,” Varchione said.
Varchione (11) and new recruit Christian Hewitt were out by the end of the day’s play but the captain was optimistic about the coming Saturday.
“Our batting is going to be our strength this season so hopefully we should be able to knock it over,” he said.
