CRICKET
CLV GRAND FINALS
By WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER
GRAND Final weekend arrived across Cricket Latrobe Valley.
Teams across all grades battled it out for cricket supremacy, with results reached on Saturday.
Matches were played across at Morwell, Yinnar and Toongabbie.
Premier B Grade
Thorpdale 5/95 def Ex Students 10/93
THORPDALE Gentleman’s Club Cricket Club completed a dominant finals series at the weekend.
The Blues defeated Ex Students by five wickets in the Cricket Latrobe Valley Premier B decider.
Chasing 94 at Morwell Recreation Reserve, the boys from the bush defeated their city counterparts by five wickets.
The Sharks were well-placed at 4/77, yet a stunning catch from Thorpdale’s Cougar Millsom changed momentum.
Millsom turned into Jonty Rhodes momentarily, diving to his left to intercept a full blooded pull shot from Chris Potalej at mid-wicket.
Potalej was on 30 at the time and looked like taking his side to a competitive total.
The dismissal led to a steady loss of wickets, as Blues all-rounder Kayne O’Connell cleaned up with figures of 5/9.
Heath Ferguson contributed with 2/4 after handing over the wicket-keeping gloves halfway through the innings.
Zack O’Connell also took 2/26, while Shannon Pickering conceded just eight runs in six overs.
Potalej got one back, taking a blinder with the gloves diving in front of first slip to see the back of O’Connell.
Thorpdale was 1/41, and lost a few wickets on the run before Pickering and Ferguson steadied to see the team home in the 37th over.
Sam Farmer remained a threat and took 3/23.
The win marked a third B Grade premiership for Thorpdale in the last 10 years, although first in the Cricket Latrobe Valley era.
The Blues finished third on the home-and-away ladder, but got most of it first-choice players back for finals to defeat the top-two teams.
Thorpdale defeated Glengarry by 10 wickets in the semi-final.
Incredibly, this was the first season Ex Students did not win a senior premiership in any grade for some 30 years.
Zack O’Connell is now in a league of his own as a four-time cricket premiership winner for Thorpdale (2008/09, 2018/19, 2020/21, 2025/26).
His younger brother Kayne was named player of the match.
If the sight of Wild Turkey cans at the team photo was any indication, it was going to be a big night up on the hill.
While that bourbon was mixed with coke, it is likely late Thorpdale Cricket Club icon and teetotaller Harvey Poole was looking down proudly with just the latter.
“Nothing happened at Thorpy without Harvey, what he did, unbelievable, none of us would be the cricketers we are without Harvey,” club president James Durkin said.
“You always know he’s there. I reckon he’s proud as punch having a can of Coke right now.”
The winning team was: Kayne O’Connell (captain), Shannon Pickering, James Durkin, Blaeden Dyke, Mark Graeme, Robbie Kerrison, Zack O’Connell, Cooper Pinkerton, Heath Ferguson, Daniel Taylor, Cougar Millsom, Aaron Lancaster and Corey Davis.
B Grade
Raiders 6/94 def Imperials 10/93
RAIDERS proved to be the best in B Grade.
The team from Yinnar celebrated the start of an outstanding weekend for the club by winning the B Grade premiership.
The B Grade triumph acted as a precursor to the Raiders A Grade flag the next day.
Chasing 94 against Imperials, Raiders survived a few nervous moments to eventually win by four wickets.
Dennis Caulfield was the only batsman to make a contribution for Imperials, scoring 36.
Satwant Pooni had an outstanding final, taking 5/16.
He saw the back of Caulfield, and then the last four wickets all for just 19 runs.
The home side looked on track at 3/49, yet successive wickets kept things interesting.
Raiders veteran Jesse Berryman-Lambert however faced nearly 100 balls to take valuable time out of the game.
While he only scored 19, his innings was worth twice as many in the context of the mach.
The winning runs were hit in the 38th over, making for an extra special celebration as Raiders won the premiership on its home ground.
Joel Randall took 2/21 in a losing effort.
Pooni was named player of the match.
There was still some reason for both sides to celebrate, as Raiders and Imperials each earnt promotion to Premier B for next season.
Raiders may see this premiership as a leveller from last season, which they lost on the seventh ball of an over.
The winning team was: Kapil Arora (captain), Amal Joshy, Sahil Khan, Satwant Pooni, Hardeep Singh Rai, Naunihal Singh Sandhu, Rupinder Sidhu, Jeevan Varghese, Jesse Berryman-Lambert, Patrick Mills and Ken Hutchinson.
Premier C
Moe 10/161 def Rawson 10/115
EVERYONE can stop talking about Moe winning a flag this year now.
It’s already happened.
Moe won the Premier C decider in Cricket Latrobe Valley after a comprehensive Grand Final performance.
The Lions were too strong for Rawson, winning by 46 runs.
No matter what grade, Moe tends to do the same thing for a final.
This was no exception.
The Lions batted first and used up all the overs to post 161.
This looked some way off when the score read 9/107, yet some wizardry down the order turned the game.
Youngster Haydn Edwards played just about the innings of his life, scoring 36 off 40 balls batting at number 10.
Grand finals tend to create unlikely heroes, and this was certainly one of them.
His effort got the Lions out of trouble, and backed up the earlier work of Noah Keltie (34) and skipper Robert Straughair (29).
Darren Wilkie (3/28) and Jason Wiseman (3/30) led the way with the ball for the Kookaburras, ably assisted by Mitch Williams (2/26) on the Toongabbie Village Green.
Rawson’s innings never really got going, although Jake Casey (36) and captain Lachlan Watson (35) did their level best in a total of 115.
Moe however bowled very well as a unit, with four of five bowlers taking wickets.
The two Craigs, Boswell (3/9) and Veenman (3/17) did the damage, along with player of the match Edwards (2/31).
Moe has enjoyed whole-club success in recent years, with all three senior grades winning premierships.
A Grade saluted in 2021/22, B Grade last season, and now C Grade this season.
The Lions will enjoy returning to Ted Summerton Reserve later this year, although may still look to keep Burrage Reserve Newborough as a second turf wicket.
With a turf wicket also at Moe Racing Club, league officials will surely want to see three decks in town.
Engaging with the racing club to see if track staff could prepare a wicket seems a logical pathway.
The winning team was: Robert Straughair (captain), Shannon Murphy (captain), Noah Keltie, James Keltie, Shaun Curtis, Kye Micallef, Craig Veenman, Haydn Edwards, Frank Manduci, Ronnie Whitney, Henry Bootman and Craig Boswell.
C Grade
CATS 6/179 def Jeeralang-Boolarra 10/144
NEVER easy to win from fourth.
Even when you only qualify on percentage.
CATS did it the hard way to win the Cricket Latrobe Valley C Grade premiership.
The team from Callignee South defeated Jeeralang-Boolarra in the decider, following a whirlwind few weeks.
CATS won its last three home-and-away games to sneak into finals, before rolling minor premier Gormandale in the semi-final, and then the Panthers by 35 runs in the decider.
Batting first at Yinnar hard wicket, CATS compiled 6/179 from the allotted 40 overs.
Despite being 3/19, Tony Harrup and Corey Beaver rescued the innings with scores of 36 and 32.
Jacob Cecil (2/31) and Oliver Stanton (2/34) took a pair of wickets each for Jeeralang-Boolarra.
Jeeralang-Boolarra made a good fist of the chase, but were behind the run rate for the most part.
The score was 3/98 when skipper Ben Duffy was dismissed for 37, which was essentially the game.
Nathan Spark added 36 off 40 balls, but when he went out, the Panthers were still more than 50 runs behind with only two wickets in hand.
Beaver snared 3/37 and Bresciano Wilson 2/43 to see Jeeralang-Boolarra all out for 144.
Harrup took 2/23 and was named player of the match for his all round efforts.
In a bizarre situation, CATS qualified for finals despite winning less games than fifth-placed Rovers.
CATS will go into Premier C, as will Gormandale as the minor premier.
Jeeralang-Boolarra has plans to return to A Grade, and with a strong C Grade team, there is a plausible starting point for the whole club.
The winning team was: Dale Fleming (captain), Corey Beaver, Tom Hagley, Tony Harrup, River Hendrix, Harrison Low, Shane Mustoe, Steve Webley, Bresciano Wilson, Luke Wilson and Liam Pass.
