By Tara Murray
Williamstown Imperials did its hopes of sealing top spot in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association Steve McNamara Shield no harm on Saturday.
As many teams were washed off, the Imperials made the most of their time on the field against Tullamarine.
In a battle between one of the top and bottom sides, it was the Imperials that came out on day one.
Imperials captain-coach Andrew Hendry said it was one of those days.
“It was a good day with other results kind of washed out,” he said. “We got on for a fair part of the day.
“It was a good toss to win with the pitch a bit tacky and favouring the bowlers.
“We were on and off three or four times by the end of the day. It was called about 5.15pm, so it was cut a little bit short.”
Having sent in the Demons, the Imperials got the job done with the ball as they bowled them out for just 55.
Only Demons skipper Peter Labbad, who scored 28, made more than six.
Tristan Alsop bowled 17 overs straight for the Imperials, taking 6-18. Jarrod Milczak chipped in with three wickets.
The Imperials faced three overs at the end of the day and will resume at 1-10.
Hendry said they would take that considering the pitch.
Six points clear on top of the ladder an outright win would secure the minor premiership heading into the final round.
Hendry said they don’t even think about that yet.
“We can’t be thinking about an outright, we need to focus on getting the win to start with,” he said.
“We will kind of just roll from there. If everything goes our way, heading into the last game of the season we can fall out of that first spot.
“But we just focus on the game ahead of us.”
It’s been a good season for the Imperials who came up into division 2 after winning the Roy Picone Shield last season.
Hendry said they have probably exceeded their expectations a little bit so far.
“The side isn’t too dissimilar to last season but we added a couple of signings,” he said.
“We knew that if we got to go up that we would be competitive. The first game of the year against Maribyrnong Park we were looking at ourselves and going, where are we going to sit?
“We’ve gelled a lot more as a group and are a lot more confident in where we are at.”
In other games, Maribyrnong Park St Marys made 2-53 off 19 overs against Williamstown CYMS.
Newport-Digman and Greenvale Kangaroos match and West Newport and Grand United’s matches are both now one-dayers after no play on Saturday.
In senior division, Airport West St Christophers is 5-125 against Yarraville Club.
In the Isaac Howarth Shield, Altona Roosters need 188 against Oak Park St Francis de Sales and Footscray United is 3-24 against Seddon.
Druids and Altona North’s matches are now one-dayers.
