Page 20 The Moorabool News – 23 November, 2021
Sport
Lions take down Roosters Darley Cricket Club By Todd Whelan Reigning dual Premiers Darley have made the perfect start to their title defence with a comfortable 73 run win over North Ballarat at the weekend. Futhermore, the Lions two wins have come on the road, an achievement not underestimated by coach Brian Wheelahan. “Games are never easy to win away from home, especially when you’re the hunted like we are,” he said. “And again, the most pleasing aspect to come out of Saturday’s win was the solid spread of contributors with bat and ball.” According to Wheelahan, it’s exciting to know there’s plenty of room for growth in this group. Never a true word spoken after the Lions won the toss and their top order went to work. New opening combination Danza Hyatt (38) and Dilan Chandima (26) had the Lions away to a safe start putting on 52 for the first wicket to lay the foundations for a hungry batting unit, keen to take advantage of a wearing new ball. Free hitting Captain Brad Barnes (45) 46, Rahmutullah Khwaja (16) 24 and Madushanka Ekanayake (40*) 33 struck the ball freely while the glue of the middle order, Hasitha Wickramasinghe (50) 69, reaffirmed his importance with his uncanny ability to rotate the strike through the middle overs. The Lions set the home-side 240 runs for victory and weren’t shy exposing the depth of quality with the ball, using seven bowlers to dismiss the Roosters for 166. Five Lions bowlers took wickets, highlighting the
club’s fortunes with the ball are not solely dependant on star quick Madushanka Ekanayake (0-26) who managed just five overs of the 46.2 sent down. Consistent spinner Hasitha Wickramasinghe was not used, with the Lions opting for newcomer Dilon Chandima (3/33) who has quickly made an impression at his new club. The 73 run win gave all indications of a team in form, hellbent on a rare three-peat mission. The Lions will prepare for another road trip this Saturday for a meeting with Buninyong (5th) at St Pats 2 Oval. Play begins at noon. Results – Round 3 BCA 1st GRADE Darley 8/239, Overs 50. H. Wickramasinghe 50, B. Barnes 45, M. Ekanayake 40*, D. Hyatt 38. North Ballarat 166 all out. Overs 46.2. B. Longhurst 3/31, D. Chandima 3/33, D. Hyatt 2/33. Darley won by 73 runs. BCA 2nd GRADE Darley 172 all out, Overs 45. Da Locke 45, L. Cornford 29. North Ballarat 9/173, Overs 44.4. W. Johnson 2/17, J. Oorloff 2/24. Darley lost by 1 wicket. BCA 3rd GRADE North Ballarat 78 all out, Overs 25.2. L. Jordan 4/14, T. Cox 2/12, D. Fawcett 2/20. Darley 3/86, Overs 21. Darley won by 7 wickets. BCA 4th GRADE East Ballarat v Darley. Darley won by forfeit. BCA 5th GRADE Darley 79 all out, Overs 23.4. Brown Hill 5/80, Overs 16. M. Stiff 3/14. Darley lost by 16 runs.
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Under 11 Ballan played L.B. Goldpanners and produced a match winning performance. L.B. Goldpanners were dismissed for 7/83. Ballan captain Banjo Luke opted to bowl, after winning the toss with opening bowler Edward Bayard outstanding with 1/1 off 3 overs, Banjo took 1/4 off 3, while Lachie Olthof, Charlie Black and Beth Davenport all took 1/10 off three overs, Michael Rawlins took 0/4 off 2 overs taking a great catch, while Cooper Olthof was 0/10 off 3 overs. With the bat, Banjo made 12 and Beth top scored with 18. Under 13 – Round 3 Ballan 4/62 def East Ballarat Brown 2/48. Batting - Beth Davenport 12 ret n.o., Clover McIlwaine 10 ret n.o., Sarah Burton 5 n.o., Eamon Grigg 4, Max Farrell 2. Bowling - Clover McIlwaine 1/6, James Bayard 1/11, Max Farrell 0/5, Charlotte Wallace 0/5, Sarah Burton 0/6, Jackson Letcher 0/6, Oscar Britt 0/7. Under 15 - Round 2 (Day 1) Ballan 3/77 v East Ballarat 2/78. Batting - Noah Pace 41 n.o, Josh Singh 22. Bowling - Tom Norman 1/5, Clover McIlwaine 1/6.
Under 17 v Wendouree Having lost the toss, the team was fielding first. The opening bowlers set the tone with economical bowling. This would carry through, whilst picking up wickets at convenient times throughout the innings to restrict Wendouree to 4-155. Jack, George, James and Heath all took a single wicket each. They will look to chase down this total next week. Second XI (4th Grade) v Mt. Clear Batting - Jake Wernicke 26 n.o, Eli Muir 24 n.o Bowling - Michael Vallance 2/17, Jake Wernicke 2/24. Winning the toss and electing to bat, Ballan openers John Costello and Glenn Easterbrook made slow and steady progress through their innings. Runs were hard to come by with accurate fast bowling during the first 15 overs. The loss of 6 wickets within the next 15 overs chasing quick runs placed the setting of a worthwhile target at risk. Ballan managed a 47-run partnership between Jake and Eli, to bring the total to 6/99 for Ballan at the close of the 40 over innings. Bowling, Daniel Pascoe and Eli opened the innings in tight fashion for Ballan. Together with great fielding it ensured a slow run rate up until the drinks break with
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Powerful wave hits By Michael Howard (HRV) Like a powerful and unstoppable force Catch A Wave swept past all rivals to leave no doubt he was the king of his two-year-old colts and geldings’ class. A rapt and emotional trainer Andy Gath and driver Kate Gath celebrated after their Mimosa Homes Breeders Crown win, having delivered loyal owners Richard and Pauline Matthews a much-deserved Group 1.
Breeders Crown winning driver Kate Gath on Catch a Wave. “It’s been a long week, he Photo Stuart McCormick deserves to win a big race and to get one for Richard and Pauline – I’m a bit emotional, when owners support you for so long, and to win a big race for them – I’m just rapt," Andy Gath told TrotsVision. It wasn’t without a touch of drama, with Catch A Wave, whose pre-race behaviour saw him out of the draw and handed gate 13 for the final, playing up again ahead of the $300,000 classic. But the drama delivered a happy ending, with Catch A Wave settling in the running line before emerging with a tick under a lap to go, going head-to-head with a brave Flash Jimmy and then clearing out to win by 15 metres. “When he (played up) in the warm-up it was fair to say I had my work cut out (but) he went terrific,” Kate Gath said. “To win a two-year-old pacing (Breeders Crown) – that’s the ultimate for me. So hard to do. To do it the way he did it was still pretty impressive. “It’s not often you get to drive a horse like that in a race and it runs away from them in a 26.6 (last quarter). Often when you sit back, if they run a 54.5 half you nearly can’t win. It’s phenomenal what he did tonight and really exciting.” the score on 1/52. After the break, Michael found himself on a hat-trick (and picking up his 50th wicket for BCC in the process)! Miserly off-spin bowling from Jake, and some marvelous leg-spin from Ned Loft saw Ballan stretch the run chase into the 34th over, where Mt. Clear overcame the small target, finishing at 4/101. 1st XI v Dunnstown (2nd Grade) The Ballan young quicks took early wickets to contain Dunnstown to 4/26, with very few loose balls which led to heaps of pressure. This created opportunities everywhere with the fielding backing up the bowlers efforts on a difficult ground. Kobe Heafield finished off the innings with a scintillating four wicket second spell of bowling, resulting in his first senior five wicket haul, ending with figures of 6/20. This restricted Dunnstown to all out for 122. The batting got off to a flying start with Lachie (18) and Jack putting on 30 in a short time. Ben (36) joined Jack (38) at the crease, were these two punished the Dunnstown bowling attack to build a partnership of 63. The boys showed class and confidence and dominated the bowling. A late batting collapse wasn’t enough to bring Ballan’s great efforts undone, with Heath Doherty guiding the team home with an unbeaten 14. The team remains unbeaten after two games, with a home game against Lucas CC fixtured for this week.
Kobe Heafield with the match ball after figures of 6/20 against Dunnstown. Kobe plays with the U17s in the morning and continues taking wickets for Ballan 1st XI in the afternoon. Photos – Chris Thom
Michael Vallance (KB) celebrates his second wicket Ned Lofts, backed by Jake Wernicke, throws A sharp catch in gully by John Costello Kobe Heafield bowling for the U17s in the morning. in two balls with Jake Wernicke. underarm for a run out chance in the U17s. off Michael Vallance's bowling.