Tough campaign
The Warragul and District under 15 team endured a tough campaign, recording one win to finish at the bottom of the table. Round 2 v Leongatha The Wild Dogs won the toss at Inverloch and elected to bat.
The Wild Dogs made a slow start but healthier than previous day.
A 50-run partnership for the second wicket between Will Gown (33) and Patty Mulqueen (20) pushed the score, but WDCA again lost regular wickets through middle order to be 7/90 in 34th over.
The WDCA worked hard with the last four bats Matt Garvey (11), Jack McConville (19), Jake Stewart (17 not out) and Zac Wright (six not out) to bat the full 50 overs and set a target of 9/148
The opening bowlers battled to get their rhythm against a very good player in Aaron Bardwell, who came off 132 not out in the previous round.
The WDCA struggled with line and length and Bardwell got away with 76 before a great piece of fielding by Matt Garvey saw him run out. By that stage LDCA had reached 3/93 off 20 overs. The bowlers were able to settle after that and work hard to contain but just did not have quite enough runs to play with.
LDCA reached the target in 46th over before being bowled out for 159.
The best bowler was Patty Mulqueen with 3/29 from 10 overs. Round 3 v Sale-Maffra Sale-Maffra won the toss at Wonthaggi and opted to bat.
They made a fast start to be 0/20 off five overs and it looked like the WDCA bowlers would be plagued by line and length issues again.
Liam Murphy started to get it right and took 2/7 off his first six overs.
The Wild Dogs were able to take regular wickets and at the 30 over mark had kept Sale-Maffra to 7/89 thanks to Jack McConville (3/23) and Will Gown (2/20).
SMCA did get away a little but WDCA were happy with the bowling and fielding efforts to take all 10 wickets, bowling the Sharks out for 157 in the 48th over.
In chasing WDCA lost openers Gown and Darcy within seven overs and then continued to lose wickets regularly to be all out for a disappointing 67 in the 34th over, the only resistance coming from captain Patty Mulqueen (26). Round 4 v Bairnsdale The WDCA opted to bat first against Bairnsdale. Unfortunately another poor start saw WDCA losing early wickets to be 3/16 at the 10 over mark and 6/30 at 25 overs.
With three of the four first option bowlers being of the slow/spin variety, it showed that the WDCA boys were finding it difficult to master this art, with only Tynan North (17) and Bailey Osseweyer (12) reaching double figures.
The Wild Dogs were eventually bowled out for 73 in the 44th over.
The boys put up a spirited fight in the field to have Bairnsdale 3/33 in the ninth over.
Bairnsdale went past the score in the 21st over with six wickets still in the shed. They amassed 6/220 at the end of their 50 overs with Liam Murphy, Will Gown, Heath Darcy and Tynan North taking wickets. Round 5 v Central Gippsland ?The Wild Dogs won the toss and opted to bat first against Central Gippsland.
The bats got off to a good start in great batting conditions.
An opening partnership of 46 between Sam Pratt (24) and Will Gown and second wicket partnership of 68 between Will and Patty Mulqueen allowed WDCA to get well on the way to posting a defendable total.
Will Gown (60), Patty Mulqueen (48) and Bailey Osseweyer (36) helped WDCA to a total of 196 in 50 overs.
The bowling and fielding effort was very good in warm conditions and WDCA successfully defended the total to win by 28 runs.
Best of the bowlers were Will Gown (2-34), Patty Mulqueen (2/35) and Bailey Osseweyer (2/16).