Lakers fall just short of victory

The Lakers B Grade headed to Milawa on Saturday for a top of the table clash. With a few of the B Grade regulars unavailable it was going to be a tough contest.

Youngster Van Kreeck continued his good bowling getting the first breakthrough again, but as the better sides do Milawa consolidated and it took some time for the Lakers to make another breakthrough.

Tom Draffin was able to claim the scalp of the opposition Captain and put Milawa on the backfoot, but once again they consolidated.

The introduction of Marcus Hargreaves then paid dividends dismissing Milawa’s top scorer for the day and next ball some great work in the field by Van Kreeck saw a run out effected.

This started somewhat of a mini collapse in the Milawa batting order as veterans Hargreaves and Ted Graham bowled with great control and were extremely hard to score from.

Milawa went from a commanding 2/87 to finish with 9/110 from their 36 overs.

Ted Graham was the leading wicket taker for the day with 4/17 from 8 overs.

Other wicket takers were Marcus Hargreaves 2/15 from 7 overs, Tom Draffin 1/20 and Van Kreeck 1/19.

Chasing 111 for victory the Lakers got off to a great start with Ollie Cope and Marcus Hargreaves again putting together a 50 plus run partnership.

But collapses seemed to be the order of the day.

Hargreaves was the first wicket to fall with the score at 55. Then wickets fell before partnerships could be established and the Lakers went from 1/55 to 7/77 in the 33rd over and the chase became too big from there.

The Lakers eventually falling 13 runs short of victory. Top scorers for the Lakers were Marcus Hargreaves 31 runs, Ollie Cope 19 and Van Kreeck 14 not out.

Next week sees the B Grade off to Beechworth with only 3 rounds to go in the home and away season.