
The Margaret River Hawks A Grade side headed to Barnard Park to meet St Mary's over the weekend.
True to form, Captain Mat Kent continued his run of lost coin tosses and the Hawks soon found themselves in the field......tails never fails, skipper!
St Marys had posted a massive 239- run total against YOBS the week prior and were looking to do much the same on a batting-friendly wicket.
Tight bowling from the Matthews-Thomas opening combination saw the Saints slowly make their way to 2/13 after 5 overs.
This brought together import Joe Lowe and Saints Skipper Danny Hatton who proceeded to build a healthy partnership and recover from the slow start.
After the Hawks had a very confident caught behind appeal turned down, the Saints pair then continued to put on a 71-run partnership before Lowe was dismissed just before the drinks break.
After the drinks break, Hatton and Lloyd continued the pursuit for runs, constructing an 86-run partnership with the benefit of some hard hitting and fortunate luck.
These two large partnerships would prove to be crucial in the outcome of the match.
With the Saints score on 170, Hatton was finally dismissed for 84 but the damage was already done and the Saints manage to reach a total of 6/226 after 50 overs.
Despite the large total posted by the Saints, the Hawks remained confident in their run chase however the start of the inning saw the loss of McLean in the 5th over with the score on just 8 runs.
Both Dittmar and Joyce commenced raising the run rate towards the required 4.5 runs per over however the loss of Dittmar (9) and Joyce (22) resulted in the Hawks being 3/44 after 14 overs.
Thomas was his usual resilient self, supported by Garstone who hit 41 off 56 through the middle overs.
When Silva arrived at the crease the Hawks were 4/103 in the 33rd over, and he too looked to accelerate the innings with a 31 off 35 balls before he was trapped in front LBW.
With the loss of Silva, a Hawks victory drifted further away and whilst young Hawk Darcy Bailey composed himself well at the crease, there was simply too much ground to make up and the Hawks were eventually dismissed all out for 163.
Batting Performances: G. Garstone 41 runs, R. Silva 31 runs, S. Joyce 22 runs
Bowling Performances: T. Warnke 2/30, T. Matthews 1/19, A. Thomas 1/25
Yobs win thriller in Dunsborough
The brilliant season of A-grade cricket in the Busselton-Margaret River Association continued last weekend when YOBS snuck home to win a thriller by one wicket at the Dunsborough Playing Fields, successfully chasing down Dunsborough's big total of 196 with an over to spare.
A superb innings of 83 by Aaron Andrich set the scene in the first half of the day after Dunsborough skipper Ian Purcell won a good toss and had no hesitation in batting first.
Purcell (32) added 75 with Andrich to lead a fightback after Dunsborough were 6-58, while Ryan Martin (29) and No. 11 batsman Lachie Milton showed good sense to boost the total from 9-169 to a highly competitive 196 all out.
Offspinner Ben Payne (3-28) was the pick of the YOBS attack, well supported by first-year captain Haig Colombera (2-29).
YOBS were in a spot of trouble in their reply at 3-50, before Harvey Golding (79) added 81 with Nayton Colombera (55) to get them back in the game.
A beautiful spell of bowling by Jack Omodei, who took 5-39 including four wickets in two overs, nearly snatched the game for Dunsborough late in the day.
A great catch by Ricky Small-Boyce at long-on saw YOBS plunge to 9-185, and it was left to Luke Wedderburn to cap a thriller by hitting the winning boundary.
B-grade results:
Vasse 8-162 (37.2 overs) (J. Albury 37, M. Kammann 32, S. Madhusudan 24, D. Weston 3-32, B. Gillam 2-11, J. Moore 0-6 off 7 overs) b MR Hawks 7-155 (45 overs) (A. Seymour 35no, J. Moore 30, D. Weston 23, I. Honey 2-19, T. Perks 2-41).
Cowaramup 5-122 (34.5 overs) (K. de Silva 37, D. Santich 26no, C. Barrett-Lennard 25, C. Massey 3-21) b St Marys 120 (37 overs) (D. La Motte 29, J. Isaacson 28, B. Shepherd 3-15, O. Herbst 3-20, K. de Silva 2-10).
YOBS 125 (41.3 overs) (R. Griffiths 68, N. McClymont 4-7 off 9 overs, M. Cooper 2-18) b Dunsborough 113 (37.3 overs) (A. Mahoney 33, J. Bennett 24, N. McClymont 22no, B. Knipe 5-24, K. Spowart 2-13).