By JARROD POTTER
WGCA District and Sub-District review – Round 9 (one-day)
The billing for Pakenham Upper/Toomuc (8/129) versus Cranbourne Meadows (128) did not live up to its billing as the Yabbies stormed through the Rebels’ batting order.
Another instalment of the Shannon Marum (64) show entertained the crowd as he went the tonk and tried to deposit a few balls onto Pakenham Road.
His cavalier 64 helped add 87 for the fourth scalp with captain Brent Murdoch (25) before the collapse set in and left the Rebels defending a slender score.
It would not be an easy chase for the Yabbies – suffering their own middle order slump – but the work of Darren Warne (46) in tandem with Josh Noonan (21) and Stephen Boltong (19) started the innings off in style.
From 100 to 120, six Yabbies’ wickets fell as Jason Poole (3/27) and John Emery (2/21) started to latch on.
The last ditch effort of Kyval (13no) saw off the last few runs to eke out the two wicket win.
Three losses on the trot have the Rebels free-falling from first to fifth and they will need to bounce back against Nar Nar Goon/Maryknoll this weekend.
DEVON Meadows (156) is all but done in the race for finals after capitulating against Clyde (7/218) on Sunday.
As Clyde belted 7/218 from its 40 overs John Simpson (40) and Bradley Birkhead (42) picked up the pieces after Gav Adams (0) fell to Adam Newstead (1/28) early on.
The Panthers struggled to break the partnerships and halt the Cougars racking up a strong tally.
Dave Denton (38) and captain Kyle Brooke (37) iced the job to push Clyde past 200 and create more headaches for Lucas Carroll and his men to mitigate before the Meadows fell to the might of Pat Lawson (5/33) in response, despite the best efforts of Panthers captain Lucas Carroll (50) in tandem with Kyle Salerno (24) and Bryce Ingram (24).
Second place Clyde will head to St Francis Xavier while seventh placed Devon Meadows is off to Officer.
A SLOW outfield didn’t stop Lyndhurst Vikings (9/163) piling up a sizeable win over St Francis Xavier (79) and taking the top of the ladder.
The ground soaked up the week’s rain and it was as slow as a snail race – forcing Lyndhurst to run plenty of hard run twos and threes to make any inroads.
Mark Henry (72) feasted best out of the Lyndhurst order as he raced to his third half-ton in 2014/15 and past 300 runs for the season.
Peppered the Vikings were Chris Shepherdson (2/24), Dom Ciconte (2/28) and Todd Roscoe (2/35), who all kept things tidy.
The response was short and brutal for the X-Men as they succumbed rapidly.
Nick Macdonald – three wickets – led the rampage before Aaron Straughair – two wickets – and Ammar Bajwa – four wickets – cleaned up the X-Men tail to finish off the bottom placed side in 23 overs.
St Francis Xavier will host Clyde while top of the table Lyndhurst Vikings head up the hill to Pakenham Upper/Toomuc.
IN SUB-DISTRICT cricket, Clyde’s (124) modest tally was more than enough to dispatch Nyora (61).
It was set up through Joel Avard (57) who claimed his second half century of the season to bat out the overs under pressure from Nyora’s new recruit Chris Simmons (4/21).
There wasn’t much to smile about in reply as the Maroons coughed and spluttered to 61.
The win keeps Clyde in the hunt to stay in Sub-District next year (as Nyora’s first team can’t be relegated under usual WGCA rules), with the Cougars now 18 points behind Emerald with five rounds remaining and will host Pakenham on Saturday.
CARDINIA (50) suffered at the hands of Tooradin (141) – with the Seagulls swooping on the Bulls at any opportunity.
Aaron Creasey (38) and Michael Ralph (32) kept the tempo up for the home side to push towards a reasonable target.
In response Cardinia was devastated by the likes of Tom Bethune taking 4/6 off six overs, while Brenton Adams (3/14) and Tim Lenders (2/12) slaughtered the rest of the Bulls. Second ranked Tooradin hosts Nyora this week while fifth placed Cardinia hosts Lang Lang.
