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Tales from Down Under, December 17
Chorley-based cricket star Luis Reece is currently playing for Sunshine Coast Scorchers in Australia and is sending back weekly reports of his adventures...
It has been three months since I swapped Clayton-le-Woods for Brisbane and it has been a tough ride in terms of my personal performance.
As I mentioned in last week's column I had been dropped into the second team in order to find a bit of form with the bat and I felt it was coming last week when I scored a hard-grafted 23 before getting out.
Things were getting fun in the house that I share with my landlord Bryan Haggarty and a fellow Pom called Alex.
Every week we put $5 in a jar and the highest score over 50 gets it all otherwise it carries on to next week.
It's a bit of extra motivation for the boys to score runs, and I have to say it seems to be working.
This week we played away in an area of Brisbane called Toombul.
We fortunately won the toss and decided to bat, on what was becoming a seriously hot day.
Losing a quick wicket early on provided me with an early chance to get my eye in, and with my family coming to watch I was determined to make the most of it.
With a mixture of good shots and some luck, I seemed to be set for lunch with an over to see out.
That was until I hit a ball straight to midwicket where the fielder dropped a pretty straight forward catch letting me fight another day.
We reached lunch at 103 for 1 but on the resumption we lost the other opener but I began to feel comfortable and reached my first 50 in Australia.
By tea we were four down and I was at the crease on 93 and closing in on a hundred.
Tension was building as it took another 50 balls to score my next 10 runs.
Unfortunately with an hour to go, I wasn't able to cash in fully as I tried pushing the run rate along and got caught from a firmly hit drive.
However I was thrilled to score 103 and the lads finished with 326 for 8, a really good position to be in.
As a result of my return to form I was put in the 20/20 squad that was to play against a couple of teams called the Valleys and the Gold Coast on the Sunday.
Batting at No 3 I had a good chance to make an impression that I was definitely up to the task and hitting a brisk 38 off 34 balls was a start.
Unfortunately we lost on the last ball of the innings as they chased down 127 in a fascinating game.
The next game we batted first again but this time I could only reach 18 however, one of our batsmen, Jason Johnston, hit an explosive 81.
We finished on 147 and thought it would be enough, however we were proved wrong when they knocked it off with five overs to spare.
It was a disappointing end to the weekend but good to see the Poms doing well.
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Weather for Chorley
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -3 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Light sleet
Temperature: 0 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: West
