Forfeits and a century

Grampians Cricket Association highlights of the week were in fact lowlights, with the forfeits prevalent in B Grade extending to the premier competition.

Ladder leader St Andrews forfeited to Pomonal, which left only two matches played during the weekend.

At Gordon Street Oval in Ararat, Halls Gap invited Chalambar to bat and after 63 overs dismissed its opponent for 187.

Chad Gilmour and Phillip Walton both made it into the 30s, but the Gappers gifted Chalambar with an amazing 32 extras.

Dillon Mecallif and

Brian

Driscoll were the best of the Gappers’ bowlers with two wickets each.

The Halls Gap innings is on shaky ground in response, sitting at 2-12 from 16 overs with Charlie Mcintosh and Josh Lieth back in the shed.

Chalambar should feel confident it has the bowlers to bring home a win and Halls Gap will be hoping unbeaten batsmen Luke Stevens and Riley Thomas can go on and make a large portion of the 175 runs needed for victory.

At Central Park in Stawell a match between Youth Club and Swifts-great Western is in the balance with odds slightly in the Clubbers’ favour.

Batting after winning the toss, the Combine reached 221 before being dismissed.

Sam Cocks produced a highlight innings of 121. Cocks’ knock was the first century for the season, featuring 18 fours and two sixes, and was part of a 122-run partnership with Matt Heffer, 27.

Harvey Evans, Clint Slorach, Cam Kimber and Abhijeet Vema all took two wickets each.

In the remaining 19 overs the Clubbers reached 1-33 and will resume 188 runs behind.

The Clubbers again struggled early, with Nathan Churchill dismissed for a duck when the score was seven.

Bailey Taylor is on 20 and danger man Nic Baird on 12.

The Combine will look to take early wickets to increase the pressure on the Clubbers’ middle order, but in all probability will pay the price for not batting out its overs.

As mentioned earlier, St Andrews, who I had predicted as the big improver, forfeited its two-day fixture to Pomonal, presenting the Tigers with six valuable points.

Forfeits in A Grade are a rarity and usually the club is asked for an explanation.

With other forfeits in B Grade the association’s pennant committee is under pressure to find solutions to problems. Rumour has it that both Chalambar and Youth Club are contemplating withdrawing their second sides.