A THRILLING climax is on the cards in the Williamstown and District Cricket Association’s marathon six-day A1 turf grand final.
Those who questioned the wisdom behind the allocation of so many playing days for the season decider should crawl under a rock and appear late on Sunday night when the drama is over.
CLICK HERE for our picture gallery from the grand final.
Had the WDCA’s showpiece event between Williamstown Imperials and Wyndhamvale not stretched into a third weekend at the Bryan Martyn Oval, it would have been affected by the extreme Melbourne weather and we would have missed out on finding a true premier and the potential of an edge-of-your-seat finish when the fifth day arrives on Saturday.
“We’ve lost a day and a half to the weather and we’re still going to get a result,” Imperials’ Daniel Slattery enthused.
Last weekend both sides landed significant blows. Relatively few overs were bowled, but enough to see the game tighten considerably.
The Falcons landed the first punch, securing an 85-run first innings lead.
Falcons import Andrew Ford, made 112 of his side’s 244, Lee Veal adding 62 in impressive support.
Glen Robson and Brendan Slattery took three wickets each for the Imperials to limit the damage.
The Imps encountered too many speed humps in their first dig, all out for 159. On a damp fourth day, the Falconsslumped to 4-29 with danger men Ford and Lance Macdougall back in the pavilion, but with a 168-run lead they don’t have to force the issue.
A1 turf: Williamstown Imperials 159 (D Slattery 33 A Royston 26 J Styles 3-33 L Macdougall 3-35) v Wyndhamvale 244 (A Ford 112 L Veal 62 B Slattery 3-22 G Robson 3-46 M Craig 2-34) and 4-83
B1 turf: Deer Park Ardeer 306 (G Bennett 97 M Szulikowski 50 M Beljac 40 P Tawaf 34 S Brown 3-46 C Tucker 2-18 S Dyson 2-31 T Stanchinotti 2-93) d Williamstown Congs 81 (R Suvada 4-32 J Bonnici 3-22 R Bonnici 2-19) and 146 (M Leach 65no R Suvada 5-75 R Bonnici 3-30)
B2 turf: Melton South 118 (D Grero 39 D Croft 5-66 R Bolton 2-9 A Fine 2-20) and 5-92 (D Croft 4-32) v Gellibrand 389 (S Buttigieg-Clarke 164 C Kennedy 78 J Bulbeck 33 D Croft 30 A Gusic 5-58 B Landers 2-51 D Grero 2-67) and 263 (D Croft 84 M Taylor 40 C Kennedy 27)
C composite: Melton Centrals 108 (M Konjevic 4-30 S Najdek 3-21 W Donaldson 2-26) and 5-103 (M Konjevic 2-23) v Grand United 90
A grade matting: Caroline Springs 158 (C Viola 58 T Blackman 39) and 291 (G O’Toole 72 V Sohi 46 M Psaila 45 N Kashyap 36 T Chhimwal 26) d Melton Centrals 109 (V Sohi 7-29 N Kashyap 2-35) and 159 (V Sohi 3-26 I Shattock 2-6 M Kannambra 2-15)
B grade matting: Caroline Springs 442 (J Forbes-Anthony 99no N Vulic 84 R Shankar 73 D Le-Paez 61 P Singh 27) d Williamstown Imperials 137 (N Vulic 2-4 M Rahman 2-29 W Jaensch 2-29 G Gray 2-30)
C grade matting: Grand United 437 (J Ralph 178 C Metcher 71 J Edwards 71 MC Dyke 36 T Ralph 27 C Amla 4-69 S Sachdev 2-61) v Williamstown Colts 202
(S Mahendru 90 P Bordoloi 25 BJ Bostock 5-20 D Sutherland 2-27) and 1-9
