By Tara Murray
Yarraville Club was outplayed on the biggest stage as Deer Park claimed back-to-back Victorian Turf Cricket Association senior division premierships.
What was billed as one of the greatest local cricket grand final line ups, ended up being one-way traffic for most of it.
After two days of dominance, and a third washed out, the Clubbers called the game on Saturday afternoon to hand the Lions the premiership.
Clubbers captain-coach Mitch Johnstone said it wasn’t the result they were after.
“It’s a bit disappointing, but cricket is cricket,” he said. “We had a crack, but I guess the season went a week or two long as we struggled with some injuries to our bowlers.
“We were up against it and the game got to a point where we needed 16 wickets as well as getting ahead of them, time was running out.
“If it was still a four-day game it would have been a different equation.”
The Clubbers made 184 on day one of the match and it never looked like it would be enough against the Lions dangerous batting line up.
Day two was washed out and the two sides were back in action on Saturday on day three.
The Lions put on 125 for the first wicket to take control of the game.
They were two wickets down when they passed the Clubbers score and were 4-248 when the match ended.
Johnstone said they didn’t put it together.
“We bowled OK in patches, but there were a few loose patches,” he said. “There were a couple of high balls we dropped which would have created something.
“We could not force the issue and once they passed the score they batted sedately to take time out of the game.
“They are a good side and closed it out and claimed back-to-back titles. Credit to Mick [Andriadis].
Viraj Lakshitha and Michael Hill took two wickets each for the Clubbers as they used eight bowlers.
While the first XI fell short in the grand final, overall it was a successful season for the Clubbers.
Their third and fourth XIs both claimed premierships, as did their under-18s.
Their inaugural women’s side also made the grand final.
“I’m really proud of the club,” Johnstone said. “It’s been hugely successful with those results.
“We’re tripled in size the last couple of years and focused on a number of different areas.
“We were pretty close to achieving one and we achieved the other.”
Johnstone said the core group had signed on for next season, but there was set to be a little bit of change in the squad of next season.
