CRICKET
CLV
By LIAM DURKIN
ON the home stretch to finals.
Cricket Latrobe Valley saw out January with two day cricket making a return as Round 12 commenced.
Cricketers are in the midst of a busy schedule, as the Gippsland Cricket League season just wrapped up, and Country Week begins next week.
Back at club land, there was some good moments in the lower grades.
Rob Semmler scored a century for Morwell, and Jesse Berryman-Lambert took five fa for Raiders. Both have been absolute warriors for their clubs.
Semmler’s ton was perhaps made even more satisfying given it was against a CATS team that included former Morwell coach Rory Hare.
Some discussion has already started generating for next season as well.
Jeeralang-Boolarra are reportedly seriously considering re-joining A Grade, much to their credit.
The Panthers have only been out of A Grade for three seasons, and have maintained a desire to field an A Grade provided it is sustainable.
Now appears a good time – Jeeralang-Boolarra is fourth on the Premier B ladder and first on the C Grade ladder with good junior players coming through from under 16s and 14s.
If the Panthers do enter A Grade, one imagines a player like Brendan Mason will commit more often, while it would also make the task of recruiting players easier.
Former CLV club Trafalgar has also been brought up in the annual discussion of a possible return (death, taxes).
The Express can confirm the Ships will be staying in Warragul, unless of course a mutiny is being planned the current sitting secretary is unaware of.
Premier A
Moe 6/234 to Churchill
THAT’S just how Moe plays.
The Lions batted for 90 overs against Churchill, ending the day 6/234.
Lions skipper Matt Hibbs had an easy decision at the toss, and saw most of his top order make decent contributions at Andrews Park West.
The man with the same first name as the venue scored 64, with Andrew Philip putting in a typically methodical innings. That he faced more than 100 balls without scoring provides an important lesson.
Hibbs made 59 not out, and will surely be tempted to try and slog a quick 40 in 10 overs on Day 2.
Anu Anubhav (30) and Ben Zomer (28) also took the Lions’ total past 200.
Most of Churchill’s front liners showed equal patience, going at one and two an over.
Matt Harvey had the most success, taking 3/38.
Glengarry 6-d/151 to Centrals 1/32
IF Centrals has a batting coach, they might be using Mad Monday as their farewell party.
Another diabolical performance with the bat saw the Lions routed for 42 against Glengarry.
The home side quickly won on first innings, declared with 150 on the board, and already have Centrals one down in its second dig.
Cam Graham and Max Merton took four wickets each in the first innings, while Brandon Mayberry snared 2/1.
Graham then got to work with the bat, scoring 32, along with Hamish Busk, who made 28.
Al Jenkin however ensured a declaration could be made, getting 60 not out off 66 balls.
Marc Fenech at least took 4/55 and Tyron Gamage 2/29 for the Lions.
Centrals are looking at an outright defeat, needing to score 77 runs just to make the Magpies bat again.
Amazingly, after being well out of finals contention before Nat Freitag returned, Glengarry can leapfrog Churchill and Imperials into the top four if it takes 10 points on Day 2.
Maybe the curse wasn’t broken after Centrals won the 2023/24 A Grade premiership.
Morwell 10/207 to Traralgon Imperials 1/7
MORWELL has the advantage against Imperials.
The Tigers have the home side 1/7 chasing 207.
Imperials made the surprise decision to bowl first, and while the Tigers slumped to 3/36, runs to Jordan Campbell (38), Luke Gettings (36), Tim Ford (35), Blair Clymo (32) and Todd Dixon (32) showed a pleasing sharing of the load as far as Morwell was concerned. The Tigers had a four over skirt at Imperials before stumps, and managed to prize out one wicket.
Todd Mann will be very sore this week after sending down 32 overs and taking 4/85.
Perhaps unlike Mann, Scott Aitken (3/42) and Charlie Pilling (2/27) will now turn their attention to batting.
Ex Students 5-d/310 to Toongabbie 1/31
YOU just can’t buy this experience.
Ex Students declared at 5/310, and has Toongabbie 1/31 in reply at Terry Hunter Oval.
The same formula again proved successful for the Sharks: bat first, keep wickets in hand and go at a reasonable rate.
Lee Stockdale top-scored with 69 and Rick Battista made an unbeaten 66 off 65 balls.
Youngster Fletcher Graham played his breakthrough innings, scoring 51 batting first drop.
This followed openers Matt Dyke (35) and Jimmy Pryde (30) giving the team an ideal platform, followed by Michael Stockdale coming in later to score 31 off 37.
Amal Athulathmudali collected 4/70 for his toils.
Ex Students batted for 69 overs, giving the Rams a tricky 16 overs to see out.
A Grade
WHAT on Earth happened in Cricket Latrobe Valley A Grade at the weekend?
Extremely low scores were recorded across most games, as wickets tumbled on Day 1 of Round 12.
The one game that did buck the trend was Rovers versus Latrobe.
Latrobe 10/216 to Rovers 0/17
THE Sharks batted first at Duncan Cameron after being sent in.
Latrobe skipper Steven Freshwater led from the front with 57, and received good support from fellow veterans Adam Duncan (32 not out) and Jamie Coltman (26).
The trio faced a combined total of nearly 300 balls.
Say what you will about Latrobe’s batting over the years, one thing you can’t deny is most of the older blokes put a very high price on their wicket.
Duncan came in at 11 after Steve Hanning scored 33 off 23.
The wicket-keeper is certainly not a Number 11, although that position does hold some strange reverence at Latrobe. Former skipper Brendan Evans always coveted the position.
It ended up being a day for the veterans, with Simon Duff taking 4/49 for Rovers.
Liam Little, representing the younger generation, took 4/51, including the key wicket of Anthony Bloomfield.
Rovers got through seven overs before stumps without any damage.
Mirboo North 10/138 to CATS 8/73
THIS has got Mirboo North classic written all over it.
The Tigers have CATS 8/73 chasing 138.
The visitors scraped to a seemingly small total at John Black Oval, after Tinashe Panyangara (4/22), Jamie Cochrane (2/6) and Aaron Fawcett (2/18) ran riot.
CATS however were reduced to 4/18 when it was their turn to bat. Four globes by the time stumps were called made for a very sorry scorecard.
Zach Hollis already has insane figures of 4/2, while Frankie Ingram has 2/34 for Mirboo North.
Ben Hagley is on 31 not out, but Mirboo North will know full well Callum Stewart still has to bat.
That being said, the drop in performance from CATS just after Christmas has been astounding.
After beating Willow Grove reverse outright in the last game before the break (which could technically still be counted as something of a loss), CATS have not won a game.
Gormandale 10/64 to Willow Grove 3/104
LONG day for Gormy coming up.
The Tigers have already lost on first innings, and Willow Grove is 40 runs ahead with Luke Payton still at the crease.
The Wolves elected to bowl first at the toss, and knocked Gormandale over for just 64.
Nimesh Soyza made virtually half the total with an unbeaten 29.
Dylan van der Stoep (3/8) and Nick Sallee (3/11) did most of the damage with the ball, as at one stage Gormandale was 6/20.
With only half the day done, Willow Grove won on first innings with all 10 wickets in hand, and then set about building a lead.
Ben Edebohls scored 70, continuing what has been a coming-of-age season for him with the bat – at least from a strike rate point-of-view.
Yohan Soyza bowled 22 very economical overs, conceding just 18 runs and taking two wickets.
As the bowling team heading into Day 2 for these sort of games, you know precisely what is going to happen and are therefore dreading it all week. It’s rather like Christmas lunch, so maybe it’s early practise at least.
Raiders 10/107 to Traralgon West 10/51 & 4/43
HE’s just too quick for most blokes at this level.
Raiders have catapulted into premiership contention, mainly because of Keenan Hughes.
The left arm quick took his second seven fa this season, in a somewhat farcical game at Yinnar Turf.
Bowling first against Traralgon West, Hughes delivered 15.5 overs of pace that netted figures of 7/17.
Harri McColl meanwhile took 2/14 to see the Eagles rocked and rolled for 51.
Raiders made a meal of its innings, slapping 107 off 39.2 overs.
The home side had first innings points in the bag with six wickets in hand, and lost its last four wickets for two runs.
Mick Higgins was there at least to provide some stability with 37 off 50.
Adding to the subplots, Hughes’ brother Connor took 5/22 playing for Traralgon West.
Alfie Peck also claimed 4/30.
The Eagles had 14 more overs to bat before stumps, and lost 4/43.
Hayden Kimpton is 29 not out, and McColl has all four wickets.
So, in the washup, Traralgon West needs to score 13 runs to make Raiders bat again, and has six wickers remaining to post any sort of total.
