Yarraville Club has made it nine premierships in 15 seasons in Victorian Turf Cricket Association senior division.
The underdog Clubbers cruised to their third flag from the past four summers with an eight-wicket win over Greenvale Kangaroos, the minor premiers, at Donald McLean Reserve.
The premiership had fast bowler Emmett Bronca’s fingerprints all over it.
The paceman, a constant thorn in the side of the Greenvale batsmen, finished with 12 wickets for the match.
Bronca took 5-53 off 13 overs in the first innings, restricting the Kangaroos to a modest 150.
The Clubbers eased past the first-innings’ target with a score of 228 to lead by 78 runs at the game’s mid-point.
Bronca backed up in the second innings with a stunning 7-74 off 25.4 overs to have the Kangaroos out for 164 – a virtually undefendable lead of 86. The Clubbers batsmen once again had no trouble picking off the runs, reaching 2-92 in 25 overs.
Will Sheridan put on a show for the Clubbers with 48 in the second dig, including seven fours and a six. It capped a fine game for Sheridan, who made 43 in the first innings.
The pick of the Clubbers’ batsmen, though, was Andrew Cullen, who produced a captain’s knock of 88 in the first innings to set up the win. Joey Blake continued his sizzling finals series with 46 to go with the 70 he made in the semi-final against Spotswood.
It was a special premiership for Yarraville Club, which is likely to farewell coach and club stalwart Michael O’Keefe in the off season.
In north-west B1, West Newport could not muster enough runs in its grand final against Royal Park-Brunswick, going down on first innings at the Western Oval.
Trailing by 14 runs after the first dig, Wests produced 183 for a lead of 169 after a stop-start innings, with Brad Dawson leading the way with 54.
Royal Park-Brunswick eased to stumps on the last day on 3-129 – 40 runs short of an outright but making the side premier nonetheless.
In west A1, Williamstown Imperials produced a gutsy run chase to beat Seabrook by two wickets in the grand final at Saltwater Reserve.
Set 232 for victory, the Imperials looked to be stagnating at times, but they eventually got there.
A 56-run sixth wicket partnership between Glen Robson (68) and Rob Gibbins (31) got the run chase back on track after the Imps had struggled to 5-104.
Luke Hudson (33 not out) and Ben Butcher (18) brought it home for Imperials, who made 8-232 in 110.3 overs.
Lance Jenkinson
