***Shield Final 2014-15 - Stinky Vics v Sandy Vags, 21-25 March, 2015***

So, how's it gonna go on the Bellerive Hwy? Or will the curator take the piss, serve up a greeny and make it a lottery?

if the pitch is unplayable and the match has to be abandoned, then we win by default?

... a lot of rain down here today, at least in the North.

BD? Preparation time for the groundsman affected?

Sandy Vags??

oh well I did give Embee the chance to come up with the title but thanks Skully.

a local weather report from Mr B Dog would be appreciated.

Pattinson back for the Vics.

Hoges out with an injury

lardbucket wrote:... a lot of rain down here today, at least in the North.

BD? Preparation time for the groundsman affected?

The curator was only given a weeks notice about the game & had already started preparing the ground for football. He was forced to bring up the wicket that was used for the WC game last week & predicts it will be dry & slow.
Weather looking pretty good, at least for the start of the game. Some showers forcast for Monday.

PeterCS wrote:Sandy Vags??

Sandgroper is a state nick (it's a burrowing insect found largely in WA).

Sorry for usurping your traditional role, h, but I couldn't resist.

This will be a 600 all out plays 700-5 two innings draw played at 2.2 runs an over. 

The Shield Final is nearly always an exceptionally dull affair as both teams look to secure first innings points.

That's the trouble with knockout/winner takes all FC cricket, and why a World Test Championship is a difficult concept to make workable.

Either you have a first innings points system, or a six day/"timeless" format, which both encourage negativity, or you say a draw's a draw and have a bowl-out or something, but then there's probably one team just hanging on with that in mind for most of the match.

Big Dog wrote:

lardbucket wrote:... a lot of rain down here today, at least in the North.

BD? Preparation time for the groundsman affected?

The curator was only given a weeks notice about the game & had already started preparing the ground for football. He was forced to bring up the wicket that was used for the WC game last week & predicts it will be dry & slow.
Weather looking pretty good, at least for the start of the game. Some showers forcast for Monday.

CAoariab ...

Big Dog wrote:

lardbucket wrote:... a lot of rain down here today, at least in the North.

BD? Preparation time for the groundsman affected?

The curator was only given a weeks notice about the game & had already started preparing the ground for football. He was forced to bring up the wicket that was used for the WC game last week & predicts it will be dry & slow.
Weather looking pretty good, at least for the start of the game. Some showers forcast for Monday.

Thanks for the detailed report Mr Dog

Both teams play positive cricket and I expect a result from the Final.

If I was WA I would boycott. Is there no other first class standard ground in Victoria?

phurt...has to be Test standard ground qmy...The final of course should be at the G but it is apparently being used for some side-bar contest

What is test standard? There are areas of grass with a different coloured rectangle in the middle in places with postcodes starting with a "3" aren't there? Holding at the "G" would have been an emabarrassment anyway.

While I tend to agree with Trev re: slow Finals, the Shield Final has produced many results and some truly gripping finishes.

Forgive me, but these memories are obviously Spiv-centric, but what about the nerve-racking finishes or remarkable results in:

- 84/85 when Peter Clifford added 50 for the final 2 wickets with rabbits Bob Holland and Dave Gilbert to get Spivs home by 1 wicket;
- 85/86 when Murray Bennett and Bobby Holland played out the last hour for a draw;
- 93/94 when a team of unknowns dubbed the "Baby Blues" won the Shield after being shamed on the back page of the SPFSP just before Xmas after the Wozzies humiliated them for 75 in an innings and 253 thumping at the WACA;
- 04/05 when the Spivs were 4-158 chasing 183 then collapsed to be 9-161, and Ferny and MacDill chucking the bat to add the required 22 for a 1 wicket win.

Other state reps please feel free to add your memorable Finals.

!995 was the standout.

Heh, I rather expected you'd say that.

I have never forgiven the Jellybacks for the Chips their first Shield...it marked the end of a fine tradition celebrated across Australia (excluding Chipland of course)

91/92 Final

Wozzies 19 runs behind after first innings

Start second innings with 3/3 ...Swamp Wag & Rag all gone

NLWL (149) and Marto (57) at the start of their careers ...and then DimTim (81) got WA a 325 run lead

Tubs Tugga Junior Bevo and Mo couldn't get enough runs and the wozzies win by 44 runs

98/99 Final

Wozzies beat Billies by an innings in Deliverance Central

Marto takes 4/30 and 1/2 and scores 85 in a man of the match performance

Wozzies not fazed by Joe Dawes playing for the billies

Fleas got a ton and BJ takes 84 runs off 70 balls in the wozzie innings

2014/15 Sheffield Shield Statistics for squad members of the finalists -

VICTORIA
Rob Quiney - 565 runs @ 40.36 __________ 0/8
Chris Rogers - 390 runs @ 48.75
Marcus Stoinis - 730 runs @ 52.14 __________ 7 wkts @ 35.14
David Hussey - 462 runs @ 66.00 ___________ 1 wkt @ 79.00
Cameron White - 179 runs @ 25.57 __________ 1 wkt @ 89.00
Peter Handscomb - 586 runs @ 58.60
Matthew Wade - 563 runs @ 62.56 ____ 31 c 2 st
Dan Christian - 533 runs @ 53.30 ___________ 13 wkts @ 29.08
John Hastings - 59 runs @ 29.50 ___________ 7 wkts @ 44.14
James Pattinson - 50 runs @ 16.67 _________ 8 wkts @ 18.75
Peter Siddle - 66 runs @ 11.00 __________ 25 wkts @ 17.32
Scott Boland -38 runs @ 7.60 __________ 24 wkts @ 25.38
Jon Holland - 64 runs @ 64.00 ___________ 13 wkts @ 23.92
Fawad Ahmed - 57 runs @ 19.00 __________ 40 wkts @ 26.25

WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Cameron Bancroft - 803 runs @ 47.24
Marcus Harris - 309 runs @ 22.07
Michael Klinger - 983 runs @ 61.44
Adam Voges - 1215 runs @ 101.25 ________ 2 wkts @ 51.50
Shaun Marsh - 700 runs @ 70.00
Tom Beaton - 61 runs @ 12.20 ____________ 2 wkts @ 60.00
Sam Whiteman - 314 runs @ 28.55 ____ 38 c 0 st
Ashton Agar - 226 runs @ 25.11 ____________ 27 wkts @ 30.22
Nathan Rimmington - 82 runs @ 10.25 _______ 32 wkts @ 23.31
Nathan Coulter-Nile - 90 runs @ 15.00 ________ 14 wkts @ 28.00
Andrew Tye - 19 runs @ 6.33 _____________ 11 wkts @ 30.55
Simon Mackin - 10 runs @ 2.00 ___________ 20 wkts @ 27.55
David Moody - 2 runs N/A _______________ 10 wkts @ 29.60

03-04...the PH & Barrel Memorial

150 to Elliott, 50s to 7 other Vics (only Braze Jr misses out), total 700+, Qld in Stewie the Ass's last match trail by 400 plus but don't follow on, Vic bat for about 90 mins then bowl Qld out with about 4.5 hours and 350 runs to spare (Mick Lewis FFS 10 for match). A drastically dull match made memorable for a) the Hookes factor and b) one of the all-time great dummy spits from Shorty about Vic not enforcing the follow-on, and both home and away games between the sides being played at a bad time for Qld, which somehow accounted for all of a virtual three-game lead at the end of the season (never understood that one but it was Shortkeeper FFS....)

shortkeeper: a blast from the past