The Newcastle team performed strongly over the weekend, playing 7 games over two and a quarter hours and a nine inning final, finishing runners up in the 2008 Country Championships. Illawarra went through the Championships undefeated and were worthy winners.

All players did everything asked of them, with Tim Graham and Moko Moanaroa selected by the coaching staff as dual team MVP’s. There were many other players, however, who had an excellent carnival. Peter Long caught four of the seven games, including the final and Jace Poole played 6 games as the anchor at centre field. First timer, Martin Bell, played strongly, pitching one winning game, playing third base on a number of occasions and hitting well. Our pitchers all did well with Mark Anderson, Joel Hudson, Guy Telfer, Tim Graham, Martin Bell and Callen Davies having help from Chris Kelly, Michael Strang, Leighton Wingrove and Kevin O’Brien along the way.

Moko Moanaroa was outstanding with the bat, hitting two home runs over the weekend and powering the ball through the infield for base hits on many others. Peter Long also hit well, hitting a home run in the final to give us an early two run lead.

The only disappointing aspect of the weekend was the injury to Luke Downie who was injured in the warm-up on Saturday afternoon just minutes before he was due to pitch against Central Coast. Unfortunately, he was not able to take any part in the carnival, leaving us a pitcher down.

Thankfully, as mentioned previously, a number of other players were able to fill in.

My thanks to Kevin O’Brien (Assistant Coach), Leighton Wingrove (Pitching Coach) and Peter Wales (Executive Officer) for their support throughout, particularly Kevin for his player communications pre carnival. Venessa Hyham was the very busy scorer and her efforts were very much appreciated by myself and the team.

The team was: Jace Poole, Shane Hughes, Chris Kelly, Moko Moanaroa, Peter Long, Michael Strang, Sean Doudle, Callen Davies, Tim Graham, David Picot, Joel Hudson, Martin Bell, Jason Besley, Luke Downie, Mark Anderson and Guy Telfer, with Leighton Wingrove, Kevin O’Brien and Ian Anderson as coaches. All in all, a very successful and enjoyable weekend with a good base to work on for next year.

Joint MVP Moko Moanaroa and Tim Graham.

Results
Saturday
Newcastle 8 defeated Country Under 18’s 7
Illawarra 10 defeated Newcastle 3
Newcastle 7 defeated Central Coast 5
Sunday
Newcastle 10 defeated Country Under 18’s 2
Illawarra 11 defeated Newcastle 2
Newcastle 14 defeated Central Coast 7
Monday
FINAL – Illawarra 9 defeated Newcastle 5

Ian Anderson
Head Coach