Gardner ton headlines Aboriginal successes

It was two wins from two for the Aboriginal XI squads at the County Ground in Derby on Sunday, with women's captain Ashleigh Gardner stealing the show courtesy of a spectacular unbeaten hundred.

The women crushed the National Cricket Conference by 137 runs while the men defeated hosts Derbyshire by seven wickets with 17 balls to spare.

Sent in after losing the toss, the women's Aboriginal XI suffered an early setback with star opener Hannah Darlington bowled for three. Darlington's dismissal brought skipper Gardner to the crease and, combining with Sara Darney, the pair made its intentions clear immediately as they went after the NCC opening bowlers.

Gardner was in rare form as she belted first century of the tour from just 60 balls, going on to finish unbeaten on 129 from 71, with 15 fours and four sixes. She was well supported by Darney (17), Christina Coulson (22) and Naomi Woods (11no).

Gardner's avalanche of runs saw the women's Aboriginal XI post a massive 4-199 off their 20 overs.

In reply some tight early bowling from Darlington and Woods kept the run rate to around three off the first five overs. Zoe Fleming then virtually put the game beyond reach for the hosts, claiming two quick wickets on her way to figures of 2-13 from four overs.

The NCC fought hard to ensure they batted out their full allocation, but in the end, fell well short on 5-62.

Along with Fleming, other strong performances with the ball came from Sally Moylan and Naomi Woods.

In the men's match against Derbyshire the Aboriginal XI won the toss and sent the hosts in to bat. This decision backfired early as Derbyshire openers Thomas Wood and Chesney Hughes exploded out of the blocks, racing to 0-96 off 10 overs. However just when the game was slipping away from the Aboriginal XI squad, Nick Boland claimed the key wickets of Wood and Hughes, and young spinner Brock Larance clean bowled Dan Birch to inflict a collapse of 3-9.

Derbyshire struggled to rediscover momentum from there, with Larance and the Boland brothers tightening the screws with the ball to restrict the hosts to 6-156.

In reply the opening combination of Brendan Smith and Damon Egan put the visitors in the box seat with an 85-run opening stand off just 9.3 overs. Smith smashed his second half-century of the tour, which included five fours and four sixes.

The departure of both Smith (57) and Egan (38) didn't alter the momentum though as captain Dan Christian was joined at the crease by the in-form Ben Patterson. The pair continued to find and clear the fence at regular intervals and despite Patterson being dismissed for 16, the Aboriginal XI chased down the target in 17.1 overs with seven wickets in hand.

Attention now turns to the final match day of the tour in Tuesday at Trent Bridge with the women taking on an ECB Academy squad and the men taking on Nottinghamshire.

Meanwhile, last Saturday, the Aboriginal squads recreated a series of photos from the 1868 tour with the help of Australia men's team captain Tim Paine.

The recreated photos include a team shot taken in Swansea in 1868 and the iconic poster of individual player shots taken in Hamilton, Victoria prior to departure for the UK 150 years ago.

In the image below, Paine fills the role of Charles Lawrence who was captain/coach and the only non-Indigenous player in the 1868 squad.

Original artefacts from the 1868 tour were recently discovered in the UK and in an extra special initiative, male players were able to hold these as part of the recreation.

Female players substituted these weapons for cricket stumps painted by Aunty Fiona Clarke, the great-great granddaughter of 1868 player Grongarrang (Mosquito).

The photos were recreated at Lord’s to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the of the first Australian sporting team to tour the UK.

The Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM), Exeter is lending Aboriginal artefacts, newly identified from the 1868 cricket tour to the UK, for display at Lord’s throughout the 2018 season.