Greetings, Rovers Fans!

Welcome to the latest edition of our Rovers News Update, where we bring you the thrilling highlights from an action-packed weekend of cricket. 

Milestones Galore! 

• Josh Chadwick: Our Senior 1st Grade Captain reached a monumental milestone, playing his 100th senior game and claiming his 100th senior wicket! A captain’s century in every sense! 
• Aaron Lock: A salute to our seasoned player as he achieved a remarkable feat, taking his 200th senior wicket! A true wicket wizard in action! 

• Tommy King: Making waves with his first half-century in senior cricket, Tommy batted through the innings, showcasing his prowess with the bat!
• Jakob Stennant: A warm welcome to Jakob, who made his 1st Grade debut—an exciting addition to our talented lineup!

• 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Grade: Secured wins in their respective matches, demonstrating the strength and skill of our teams!
• Tier 3 Teams: Triumphed this weekend, contributing to the overall success of Rovers Cricket Club!

Junior cricket training concludes for the year on Wednesday, December 6th. Let’s wrap up the year together with good food, good company, and a celebration of our shared successes!   Join us in celebrating the end of the year with pizzas, drinks, and ice cream for sale, creating a perfect opportunity for juniors, seniors, and families to come together plus don’t miss out on the chance to win a fantastic meat tray raffle.

Thank you for your unwavering support, Rovers fans! Let’s continue to carry the Rovers spirit with pride both on and off the field. Your feedback is invaluable, so feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions for making our newsletter even better.

WORDS FROM OUR PRESIDENT

Some words from John Margiotta our Cairns Rovers Cricket Club President

Hello Rovers Family,
We are nearly halfway through the season and it feels as though the break could not come soon enough! I would personally like to thank all players, parents and volunteers on the tremendous efforts and contributions made by everyone so far. Junior and Senior teams have been challenged with numbers from week to week and this takes a lot of work by all to fill vacant playing spots. The coordination to over come this has been exceptional. The extra effort and hours put in to cover 2 games in a weekend by a player can be draining but the results have been outstanding.
               
Our volunteers have also worked hard covering canteen shifts and duties at Griffiths Park and Junior training on a Wednesday. Our Junior Coaches, Assistant Coaches and Managers also have worked hard for the club. For this Rovers is truly grateful for your help, we have a true family at Rovers Cricket Club!
               
We have seen some changes to the structure of training at the club with Head Coach Andrew Phelps taking the reins, Andrew has worked tirelessly for both Seniors and Juniors. The results are clearly visible with our teams’ performances, we will always however continue to look to improve how we deliver these sessions as a club so that our players are receiving the best possible training and coaching available.

Good luck to all of our Rovers Juniors who are playing Representative Cricket over the next couple of weeks, you all have our support and we will be keeping an eye on the scorecards each day! For our Juniors and Parents enjoy this last round before the break, you all deserve the rest and for our Seniors good luck in your last couple of rounds before your time off. 

ACTIVE PERFORMANCE PHYSIOTHERAPY

Heat Strategies

With the summer heat upon us it’s important to discuss the role that heat has on performance. Under normal conditions at rest our bodies core temperature is very well regulated and sits around 36.6 and 37.3 degrees. During exercise it’s normal for this to rise above 37.5 and even in some athletes’ core body temperatures of 41 degrees have been recorded with minimal decreases in performance. However, these are outliers and it’s well documented that performance generally decreases with significant increases in core body temperature. Performance also decreases when we feel hot even if our core body temperature is within the normal range. As result it’s important that players have some strategies, they can use to help control their core body temperature and there sensation of the heat.

Some strategies that have been used previously include ice drinks, ice vests/chilled wet towels, ice baths and cold showers. These can all be used during the innings break or where possible on the boundary during games. Pre-cooling is also a strategy that is commonly used in hot environments and was frequently used in challenging conditions during the Tokyo Olympics. The aim of precooling is to lower core body temperature before competition in a way creating a heat sink where heat produced during exercise in hot conditions can be dispersed before increases in core body temperature and decreases in performance are seen. Any of the strategies mentioned previously can be used to help pre-cool athletes before games and should be considered on particularly hot days during summer.

SENIOR RESULTS

1st Grade
Twomey Schriber Rovers v Cassowary Coast – WON
On one of the hottest cricketing days in recent memory we lost the toss and were sent into the field. A solid start from Tommy King (1/17) and Robbie Thresh (2/17) helped restrict CCoast to 148 off the 40 overs. Locky picked up 2 wickets while spinners Chaddy and Phelpsy took a wicket each. As we started the chase with storm clouds on the hill Andrew Phelps scored a quick fire 55 and Marcus Berryman 17. We managed to get ourselves to the 20th over before the storm hit us with ferocity. Resulting in a 6 run win thanks to Duckworth Lewis. We can now enjoy the bye week with the win in our pocket.

2nd Grade
Red Beret Hotel Rovers v Mulgrave Punjabi – WON
Rovers 8-160 def Punjabs 147.

We travelled to Edmonton to take on the reigning champions and were a little surprised to be sent in to bat on a baking Cairns Sunday. We lost regular wickets early with only Tommy King showing any real resistance. We were floundering at 8-110 until the cool head of Shane Kennedy made his way to the crease to combine for an unbeaten 50 run partnership with Tommy. We were pleased to bat out our overs and 160 was a competitive total. Tommy King was simply superb with 73 not out – carrying his bat – in the extreme heat.

We made a couple of early inroads into Mulgrave’s batting line up but at 4-100 after 25 overs the game was very much up for grabs. Our bowling and fielding were superb in the last hour as we outlasted the Punjab’s to bowl them out for 147 and secure a tight victory. All of our bowlers toiled well – Shane Kennedy 2/18, Chaddy 2/20, Chris Davies 2/29 and Tommy King 2/31 & a run out. While it was undoubtedly “Tommy’s day” it was also another great team outing for the mighty 2s who head into the bye having muscled our way into 2nd on the table.

3rd Grade
FGF Development Rovers v 3 Norths Freshwater Designer Builders – WON

JUNIOR RESULTS – TIER 1

Tier 1
Rovers Red v 7 Girls Norths Lords Insurance
Rovers Red 118 lost to Norths 218. On a very sticky Saturday morning the Redbacks lost the toss and were sent in.  We faced some tough bowling from some older opponents but kept trying and hit 94 off the bat. Riley returned with 22 and Jacob and Aadit got 13 each.  It was still very steamy when we bowled but, like last week, our wides tally was well down and we did take 5 wickets (all shared) against some powerful norths batting.  Another top effort from the Redbacks as we keep trying to improve each week.
 
Our player awards this week were Morgun and Aadit.

Tier 1
Rovers Green v 7 Gold Norths Omega
Rovers lost the bat flip and was sent in to bat.  Norths Gold were able to keep the pressure on, restricting scoring and taking regular wickets.  Another strong contribution with the bat from Javier (20) with assistance from Ben (16), Zac (15) and Alex (15) saw the team to a competitive total.  With the day warming up, it was going to be hard to restrict Norths Gold, but Rovers Green hung in there till the end with fantastic positive talk and some very good bowling.  Best bowling figures came from Zac (3/15), Alex (2/10) and Eamon (2/21).  Players of the match this week were Zac and Liam.

Tier 1
Rovers Gold v Mulgrave Edmonton
Rovers Gold 190 v Mulgrave 50 Win. After winning the toss and fielding Rovers did well in the field picking up 11 wickets and restricting Mulgrave to only 50 runs. Jake 4/6, Ethan 3/3 and Finn 3/5  were the best bowlers.  Every batter valued their wicket and we only lost one wicket and put on a big total. Jacob 26, jake 26 and Finn 35 the best. Players of the match were Ethan, Jake and Daniel.

JUNIOR RESULTS – TIER 2

Tier 2
Rovers Green v Cassowary Coast
On a hot humid day the green machines loss the toss and were sent into bowl first. We got some early wickets and fielded well, restricting their big hitters with tight bowling and fielding. Carter was on fire with 2 for 30 off 4 overs, Evan 1 for 20 off 4 overs including a caught and bowled. After 30 overs Cassowary coast made a target of 168 for us to chase down.  With our openers out, we needed someone to step up and fill the position, in came Carter Peters!!! With a goal set from coach, Carter played a great opening stance along with Ben to get us off to a great start both retiring after 30 balls.  Brodie and Evan kept the runs on board in the middle with both retiring.  Coming down to the last 2 overs we were able to reach their total in the 29 over scoring a total of 169.  Great game against one of the top teams on a very hot day.

Massive shout out to Mark, Bernard, Simon for umpiring. Jodi for afternoon tea and all parents for sticking it out on a hot day.  Thanks to Jacob from tier 1 who stepped up played all day Saturday in the heat and helped us get over the line in the last few overs with a couple of much needed boundaries. Well done!
Players of the match were:
Carter 29(35), 2/30
Ben 38no(39) scoring the winning run and keeping extremely well.
Evan 15no(30), 1/20
Mitch for coming back to help us.

Tier 2
Rovers Gold v 6 Norths Lords Insurance
Norths Boys bowled well and skittled us for 40 runs. Neil was the shining light finishing 13 not out.
In the field the boys showed great resilience by not giving up. Rocco got 3 early wickets to have figures after 2 overs of 3 for 6.
 
Thanks to Finn for filling in and making the second-highest score with the bat.
 
The boys are eagerly waiting for next week’s game to kick off and put this one behind them.

Tier 2
Rovers Red v BRCC Blue
Rovers won the toss and on a very hot day decided to bat. Our innings never really got going and luckily for a late fight back from Mitch and Tommy we were eventually bowled out for 94.
Barron’s top order were too strong and the top 3 were able to chase down our total with ease.
Players of the match were Mitch 14 (18) and 0/5 from 3 overs, Tommy 17 (20) 0/8 off 2 overs and Riley, playing his first tier 2 game held his own with 2* (3) with the bat and 2/10 off 2 overs with the ball.

JUNIOR RESULTS – TIER 3

Tier 3 
Super Global Services Rovers  v Mareeba Bandits – WON

Tier 3 
Halpin Partners Rovers  v Mulgrave Toads – WON

We won the toss and decided to bat first. We were on a time limit so we were playing 30 overs each with  our boys making 1/ 245 with our top scorers of the day Ian not out on 53 off 57 and Cody not out on 50 off 57. It was then our time  to bowl with our boys great bowling with Mulgrave all out on the 26th over with 110 runs. Our best bowlers of the day Jack and  Ian with 2 wickets each and every single team making a great contribution to the team. Thanks to Brodie, Ben and Carter who helped out today. With Ian, Jack, Olly and Cody taking out the awards for best players this week. Thanks to Jarred, Bernard and Mark for umpiring. It was the last game for our Captain Olly who is heading to Brisbane next year on a new adventure and we wish him all the best, he will be missed by all, good luck Olly. 

AP CRICKET ACADEMY

Coach Phelps through AP Cricket Academy  is running a 2 day camp with focusing on the mental aspect of cricket. Any of the juniors interested (mainly tier 2/3 as it’s 50/50 theory/practical. Will help with mental approach to all aspects of the game.

If anyone is interested please register via this link.