Saints impressive
Pomonal forfeited its chances of a top-ofthe-table finish on Saturday when it fell to St Andrews in Grampians Cricket Association A Grade action.
The Tigers batted first, dismissed for 105. Tigers wickets fell to Tom Mills, 5-14.
The Saints continued their impressive form, scoring 3-115 in just 18 overs. Best of the Saints batters was Jack Ganley with 32.
The win enables the Saints to leapfrog the Tigers into second spot, and with a favorable draw, should maintain that position.
Chalambar could only manage nine players against Swiftsgreat Western on Saturday, who batted first and took advantage of the fielding gaps to record a mammoth 7-332.
Helping themselves to easy runs were Sam Cocks with 100 retired, and Tom Fitzgerald recorded his first association century with 116.
In reply, the Combine ripped through Chally in 16 overs for 42 runs.
Jayden Mccartney was best of the Combine bowlers with 3-8.
B Grade matches went as predicted.
Halls Gap, 6-228, featuring Josh Reid with 102, not out, and Charlie Mcintosh, 44, defeated Halls Gap 2, 10-116.
Riley Reid, with 29, was the best batter and Gappers’ bowling was led by Clinton Slorach with 3-18.
At Moyston, Rhymneymoyston fell to the Combine, 85 to 3-90.
Notable contributions were Swifts-great Western’s Travis Nicholson, 57 not out, and Jack Harney 3-9, and for Rhymneymoyston Trevor Quick’s 26.
A Grade matches this weekend will see Rhymneymoyston take on Pomonal at Moyston and Chalambar play St Andrews at Alexandra Oval, Ararat. Swifts-great Western has the bye.
In B Grade, Swifts-great Western will meet Halls Gap at Great Western and Halls Gap2 will play Rhymney-moyston at Halls Gap.
The principal match this weekend is the B Grade encounter between Swifts-great Western and Halls Gap, which will determine the top team heading into finals.
At the moment, Halls Gap is three points ahead. A loss will see the Combine overtake Halls Gap, however a win will see them one-and-a-half games in front with just two rounds to play.
The Gappers have won the past two encounters thanks to winning contributions from Charlie Mcintosh.
Combine bowlers Tom Robinson, Gary Ranton, Austin Squire and Jacob Dunn will be keen to claim his wicket.
Similarly, the Gappers will be anxious that Travis Nicholson, Dunn and Craig Marrow do not settle in.
The other B Grade match will see Gappers2 or Rhymney-moyston have a chance to notch a win prior to finals,
A Grade games look to be straight forward with neither Pomonal nor St Andrews likely to drop a game at this point in the season.
Rhymney-moyston and Chalambar will be going all out for fourth spot on the ladder, so both the Saints and the Tigers will have to work for their win.
The Stawell Girls Strikers continued their winning run by defeating Horsham Hurricanes 1-135 – Chloe Molony, 68 not out – to 0-94 on Sunday.