Top teams primed
An atmosphere of intrigue will float through Horsham Cricket Association’s A Grade competition on Saturday after the opening day of the first of three two-day fixtures winding up the season.
All eyes will be on what happens at Horsham Sunnyside Oval, where runaway competition leader Homers puts out the welcome mat for Horsham Saints.
The two-dayers will provide insight into how teams might perform come finals, and if the season continues to run to form it will be the Saints who emerge as Homers’ primary challengers.
In other words, Saturday represents a showdown of the competition’s top two teams and is also a major test to see if the Saints have a game that can upset the Pigeons’ applecart.
It comes as little surprise that the Pigeons and Saints feature heavily in the competition’s individual player averages.
Left-handers and openers dominate the batting with Homers all-rounder Simon Hopper scoring 499 runs at 55.44 and Saints veteran Gary Davidson with 464 and 66.29 against his name.
The Saints also have Mark Crafter, 440 at 36.67, and Austin Smith, 351 at 35.1, in the top five. Homers’ Adam Atwood and Jarred Combe and Saint Tim Bell are also in the top 10.
There is a similar story unfolding in bowling averages with Homers’ Combe and the Saints’ Jono Carroll, both medium-pacers, leading the competition with 21 wickets each.
Combe so far has the best average with 9.81 but Carroll’s 13.43 is also impressive.
The Pigeons and Saints have solid form coming into the clash, with the Saints too good for Laharum in the last of the season’s one-day games and Homers all over Rupanyupminyip.
At Horsham City Oval, the Saints bowled the Mountain Men out for 141, Austin Smith the destroyer with 5-29, before Davidson, unbeaten on 69, led a Saints response of 5-147.
At the same time, Homers, with Simon Hopper making 44, managed to defend 171 against the Blue Panthers at Rupanyup, bowling the home side out for 78, Combe capturing 3-12.
A key to success at Sunnyside is how many of the teams’ second-tier players perform.
Jung Tigers have been pacing themselves behind the leaders and have a broad spread of reliance on batsmen and bowlers.
Tyler Neville is the Tigers’ leading run-maker with 338 at 33.8, but others such as Simon Mock, captain Angus Adams and Brett Jensz have also made solid contributions.
Last week the Tigers made 7-191 in a one-day-game win over West Wimmera, Jensz leading the way with a half-century and Adams making 38 and three others getting into double figures. The Tigers then had the Warriors 6-131 at stumps, Dan Garner chiming in with 3-21.
Laharum is a bit of bogey side for Jung Tigers and with Damien Bunworth making 48 last week and Josh Mahoney again doing well with bat and ball, presents a danger to the home side.
Rupanyup-minyip, meanwhile, has to generate form in the run to the finals.
The Blue Panthers meet West Wimmera and can’t afford to be in a position again of trying to recover from 5-11.
Travis Hair, who made a lonely unbeaten 36 last week, needs a few more mates to find consistency with the bat and to back up Brent Hudson who took 3-25.
West Wimmera will have little to lose at Rupanyup and with Mitch Dahlenburg coming off a half-century and Tim Braendler also having some success with the bat, will be on the hunt for a scalp.