Tara Murray
Williamstown Imperials are keen to test themselves in the top of the table clash with Caroline Springs in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association Roy Picone Shield.
The Imperials moved into second spot on Saturday with an outright win against Werribee Centrals.
Now they face a Falcons side that are in just as good form.
Vice-president Brett Pearce said it would be a good test for them.
“It’s exciting to find out exactly where the team is at,” he said. “It’s a massive game for us and it will hopefully play into our favour being at home.
“We’ll see how they go travelling down to us.”
Having been in the mix the last few seasons, Pearce said they had been keen to keep improving this season.
He said they were happy with how things were tracking so far.
“It’s exciting and hopefully we will kick on from there,” he said. “The expectation was to improve on the last couple of years and finish it off.
“We did some recruiting in the off season and are pushing to go one better this year after being close a couple of times in the last five years.
The club is in a strong position with the juniors going well. Our second and third XI are sitting in finals spots and our fourth is only one game out.”
On Saturday, the Imperials picked up an important 10 points with an outright win against a struggling Werribee Centrals.
Pearce said a performance like this could set the team up for the back end of the season.
The Centurions were bowled out for 103 before the Imperials made 9-170.
It was a struggle again with the bat for the Centurions, who were bowled out for 115 in their second innings. Brad Paull and Tristan Alsop took three wickets each.
The Imperials quickly chased down the runs, finishing 2-50.
“We thought that we would get it done on Saturday,” he said. “We thought we would have to bat again to get the last little bit of runs.
“There was no stress thinking whether we wouldn’t get the 10 points.”
In other results, Kingsville avoided an outright loss to Maribyrnong Park St Mary’s.
The Lions made 182 before bowling Kingsville out for 148. The Lions made 3-141 in their second innings, setting Kingsville 175 for victory.
Kingsville finished 8-166.
In division 4, Point Cook Centrals won by one wicket against Footscray Angliss, St Andrew’s Footscray lost to East Coburg outright, Laverton lost to Melton South and Gellibrand lost a thriller to Moonee Valley.
