Williamstown finally got its first win on the board with a hard fought win against local rival Altona in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association east-west.
It has been a rough start for the Seagulls but they finally tasted victory in what turned out to be a frustrating day two.
Seagulls’ Jordan Doyle said it was nice to finally get the win on the board.
The Seagulls made 9-253 on day one of the match.
“It was about par with a good wicket and fast outfield,” Doyle said. “It was our highest score of the season.
“It was a competitive total with a fair few contributors. Sean Sturrock led the way with 62, his highest knock for the club to put us in a winning position.”
Day two would be a frustrating day with rain meaning many matches didn’t get on and other games had teams on and off the ground all day.
“It wasn’t great, it was stop-start,” he said. “We’ve been on the poor end a couple of times.”
Doyle said they knew they had to bowl well to get the job done.
Jarrod Flood Bauce set the tone early and took the wickets for four of the A’s top five batters.
Doyle said he had the ball nipping both ways and was able to get through the batters.
While the Seagulls were on top, the A’s weren’t going to give up without a fight.
“They wanted to bat out for a draw,” he said. “The way it was going our spinners got through a lot of overs in a short period of time so we would have got through the full 80 overs.
We were able to take the ambiguity of it and took the 10 wickets.”
The A’s were bowled out for 123 in the 77th over.
Adam Yates top scored with 43 for the A’s.
Flood Bruce ended with 4-44, while Chris Duffin took three wickets.
The win sees the Seagulls claim the first Hodges-MacFarlane Shield named after George MacFarlane and Brenton Hodges.
“Credit to Altona who came up with the idea,” Doyle said. “It’s good to get our name on it first.
“It’s a shame Hodgey isn’t back until after Christmas and not out here to win the game with us.”
Doyle said they were hoping the win would kick start their season.
He said they had a couple of really winnable games before the Christmas break.
“We’re still battling availability and have not put our best team on the park,” he said. “We’re starting to get there.”
Spotswood was among the other winners on Saturday, beating Donvale.
After making 7-374 on day one of the match, the Woodsmen bowled Donvale out for 81.
Dan Schuppan and Jakson Knight took four wickets each.
Donvale was 1-34 in its second innings when the match ended.
Yarraville’s match with Box Hill ended in a draw.
