Cricket Match Weekend

I only managed a quick trip to Farina with Martin MacLennan this year. As reported at the top of this page, I was intending to also be on site during the second week of June, however my wife Helen, who was recovering from a recent knee replacement was not quite able to handle the trip. Fortunately, Martin and I were on site for 2 days instead of the originally intended 1 day, and I managed to cover most of the work that had not been covered prior to our arrival.

With Martin towing my 6×4 trailer, we collected the re-built 500Kg coal skip from Adelaide Blast and Spray in Wingfield on Thursday morning, arriving in Farina late dusk, in time to make our appearance at the Shearer’s quarters daily roundup.

The first group of images relate to the coal skip. (More info follows)

On arrival at Farina I was very pleased to see how well the new catering van fitted in with the marque, and how effective the new doors that had been fitted to the marque were. They’ll be very effective in minimising fly numbers, and will be a great help in keeping the marquee clean and free from sand. The have been only a few teething troubles… we forgot that we might need to whip cream for instance! Martin can be seen in the center of the second row of images, showing his “boy scout” cream whipping technique.

I managed to get around pretty well during Friday morning, catching up with the major projects, all the time keeping an anxious watch on the sky. By 2pm however, the heavens briefly opened, but fortunately for only about 20 minutes.

There were a few spots later in the afternoon, with heavier falls at about 8pm. Overnight it continued, and by morning we’d had 13mm.

Some that were found hard at work painting the cattle truck were Wayne Richardson, Nav Isaac, Frank Thomas and Ken Holdsworth. I found Judy Isaac and David Morris working on the building behind the “new” Police Station. (Now thought to be stores rather than the originally supposed cell block).

Work on the Station itself had been temporarily suspended as the Mason (Peter) had been called away to an adjacent property to finish off some restoration s that he had been working on.

This was enough to close the Strezlecki and Birdsville tracks, and the road from Farina to Lyndhurst temporarily. Not a good sign for the cricket match scheduled for 11am!

I did a “grounds test” at the cricket grounds at 7am. My footstep (at the end of row 4 below) indicated a 2cm mud layer, so the bowlers and fieldsmen would be needing to engage 4LD! Fortunately clear skies for the rest of the morning allowed this to dry enough for play to begin at 2pm – only 3 hours behind schedule.

Team Farina was put in to bat first, with the Pastoralists the first to brave the soft ground. A stroke of brilliance by the Pastoralist’s Captain to put young 7 year old (going on 8) Ryan Gilbert in to bowl. He appeared to float over the soft ground. See his action in row 6 below. I missed the shot, but saw it myself… Ryan flew in, bowled – continued running, and caught the batsman’s ball in one easy motion! He was later named best bowler for the match (second year in a row!).

One wicket that I didn’t miss was I Adrian Bowan clean bowling Ian Litchfield (see row 5 below)!

After the match, patrons and sportsmen (and women) were served a three course meal under lights and between temporary heaters (44 gall drums of burning sleepers).