North Geelong sits four points clear on top of the Geelong Cricket Association ladder after claiming an ultra-impressive outright win against St Joseph’s in round 7.
Rain on Friday and Saturday morning forced the cancellation of many grades, including the entire Bellarine Peninsula Cricket Association, but all four GCA 1sts matches got a start.
Play was delayed by about an hour at Winter Reserve, which forced North Geelong skipper Tom Mathieson to declare at his side’s overnight total of 6/114 in response to St Joseph’s 55 all out.
A lead of 59 would prove almost enough to prevent a fourth innings.
It was left-arm seamer Mathieson who roared back into form for the Magpies, taking 5/12 from 13 immaculate overs.
Joeys’ first five batters reached double figures, but the side needed a long partnership to have any hope of avoiding outright defeat.
“They finally came out okay,” Mathieson said.
“Sometimes you can be bowling well and you don’t get the rewards. It was just a matter of putting the ball in those spots.”
Dale Kerr and Tom Webster each picked up two scalps while Bradley Apps took one to go with his five in the first innings.
Perhaps the highlight of the innings was a superb catch by Mitch Troy at long-on to dismiss Callum Leese.
Joeys were skittled for 79, which left North Geelong just 21 to chase. Sam Hall blasted 17 off five deliveries giving the Pies the points.
“We were confident going into day two without being overly confident,” Mathieson said.
“Knowing that the wicket might be doing a bit and if we put the ball in the right areas.”
The competition returns to one-day mode for the two weeks before the Christmas break and North Geelong faces Highton and Grovedale.
Mathieson said it wouldn’t be too difficult to adjust back to 50-over cricket.
“We didn’t really change a lot from 50-over to 80-over cricket for our batting,” he said.
“We just backed ourselves to go from ball one and if we bat for 50 overs we’re probably going to get a decent score anyway.
“It’s more so the bowling changes we’ll probably look at rather than bowling line and length and consistently, we’ll look to use more change-ups.”
EAST BELMONT took the points against Newtown & Chilwell with an impressive run chase.
The Two Blues resumed at 7/149 and reached a competitive 198 with Noah Guida getting a fine 56. Pace duo Dylan Moroney (5/57) and Jack Jenkins (3/48) took most of the wickets. An unbeaten 62 by Luke Inglis and 53 from Danny Hegarty saw East Belmont home by five wickets.
LARA hung on for a draw against Grovedale. Resuming at 6/132 Grovedale was dismissed for 161 with Josh Windus (56) top scoring and Daniel Blatherwick (5/62) among the wickets. Lara was eight down when stumps were called and took three points thanks largely to Rob Sodomaco’s unbeaten 52.
HIGHTON and South Barwon played out a thrilling draw. South Barwon added just 20 to its overnight score of 6/179 as Nathan McCoach took a further two wickets to finish with 7/55 while Sam Ellis made 72. Highton was in trouble at 7/104, but a 61-run stand between Andrew Murden (46 not out) and Errol Burns (25) was enough to rescue the three points with two wickets in hand.
