Although there was no senior cricket held in Batemans Bay yesterday, plenty of the junior sides made it onto the field and put forward some strong performances to start their season.
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The Stage 3A, 3B, and Stage 1 matches all went ahead as scheduled on Saturday morning, while Stage 2 was rained out.
Both of Batemans Bay's Stage 3 teams played with heart but unfortunately fell to tough losses.
Division A played against Shoalhaven Ex-Servicemens on the Hanging Rock turf pitch, and elected to bat first after winning the toss.
Ryan Rotherham was the standout for the home side with a gritty knock of 20 from 37 balls at number five. However, Joshua Franklin (15), Callum Coulter (13), and William McAteer (13) also provided some momentum to the score.
By the end of the innings, Batemans Bay had reached exactly 100. The bowlers, however, could do little to stop Shoalhaven's determined openers, who battled to be none for 60 at the end of the first ten overs.
Meanwhile, Division B played against Ulladulla United at Surfside's main oval.
The home side won the toss and sent the visitors in to bat, but after an early stumble saw them lose their first wicket for eight runs, a partnership of 74 began which Batemans Bay struggled to break.
By the end of the first innings, Ulladulla had compiled 3-110 off 30 overs, in spite of some outstanding bowling from the Bay's Nick Wain (0-9 off five overs) and Mason Fardell (1-8 off four).
In response, Nick batted stoutly at the top of the order for an unbeaten 11, as Batemans Bay crawled to 2-25 from ten overs, just ten runs shy of the Duckworth-Lewis par score of 35.
Regardless, coach Ryan Stewart praised his team in the match report following the game, saying that despite the loss "the game was played in fantastic spirit, and was a great way to begin a fun season of cricket following a difficult year for the local juniors".
Over on the Surfside small oval, Stage 1 was the only Batemans Bay team to claim a win on Sunday, which it did against Bomaderry/NNCCC.
"Stage One had a victory in their first match," BBCC said in a Facebook post on Saturday. "Congratulations players, coaches [and] supporters. Awesome effort in not so great conditions."
