On Saturday, March 19, the mighty Boorowa Crocs headed to Yass to take on Yass Golf Golf in the Grand Final of the A Grade Yass District Cricket Competition.
Boorowa won the toss and Captain Josh Carmody backed his bowlers to get the job done early.
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Unfortunately, Boorowa struggled to hold momentum early on and Yass headed to drinks at 1-73.
Boorowa didn't miss chances, but the Yass batsmen gave very little and set up a great platform for their team.
After drinks, that was all turned on its head, as Boorowa turned up the aggression in their attack and built pressure every ball.
Stunning bowling spells from Josh Carmody and Nick Dwyer brought the Crocs back into the game, with seven wickets falling for 70 runs after the drinks break.
Figures of 3-21 for Nick Dywer, 1-16 for Carmody, 2-36 for brother Jacob Carmody and two great run outs put the contest well back in the balance at the turn of the innings.
It was a sign of the progress that the Crocs squad has made in 2022, where previously the game would have been put away by their opposition after drinks.
Some great catches from Matty Ackland, Chris Dwyer and the keeper Noisey Anderson supported the bowlers and gave the Crocs a fighting chance to chase down 144 runs to win.
The match continued to ebb and flow over the next few hours.
Boorowa had all the talent needed to chase down the target, and they were confident in getting it done.
Strong contributions from the Brothers Carmody (Josh 20 and Jacob 22) kept the Yass batsmen on their toes.
Fresh from a blown-out ACL, Matty Ackland proved to be a ruthless competitor, scoring 24 quickfire runs to bring the total within reach for the Crocs.
Supporting partnerships with Chris Dywer and Nick Dwyer almost made Jacob Carmody the hero, however, the Crocs fell 21 agonising runs short of bringing the Trigg Shield back to Boorowa for the first time in 50 years.
All in all, it was a quality game of cricket that could have went either way.
The Crocs were dejected in defeat, however, it didn't take more than a couple of cans to turn their spirits around.
A huge thanks to Macca and the team at the Court House Hotel for their great sponsorship throughout the year, and in particular for throwing a very generous tab over the bar for the boys when they returned.
Player's Player went to Jacob Carmody, with votes also going to brother Josh and Nick Dwyer.
Vinnie Ryan also grabbed his obligatory vote, and was thanked for his leadership and life coaching throughout the 2021-22 season.
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Champagne Moment was Jacob Carmody's back-to-back pull shots for four to inspire the run chase.
Special mention must go to Josh Carmody, who topped the batting aggregate for the entire A Grade comp, and was duly awarded the Player of the Year for the competition.
Josh went from strength to strength with bat and ball this year, with clear daylight between him and second place - and there's no doubt he can lead this group of 12 blokes to the A Grade title in 2022-23.
So, while the rest of the town hooks into the footy season, Stump Mike will be going into hibernation, pouring over this year's scorebooks and counting down the hours until the Crocs get another crack at the Shield in the 2022-23 season.
