By Justin Flynn
Anglesea heads into the midseason break unbeaten and on top of the Bellarine Peninsula Cricket Association A1 Grade ladder thanks to a brilliant century from opener and wicket-keeper Tyron Norman.
The left-hander made a stunning 112 from just 103 deliveries and hit 11 fours and five sixes.
When Norman was dismissed with the score on 8/162, he had made most of his side’s runs. The Seas would eventually go on to make 187 against Armstrong Creek.
Norman said he hit the ball “pretty clean” and that he “felt nice out there”.
An opener all his junior years, Norman slid down into the middle order for several seasons, but was elevated back to the top of the order three seasons ago and has thrived.
Late order efforts from Luke Taylor (17), Darcy Elliott (11) and Dylan Taylor (13) pushed the score up to 187 when it could have been much worse.
“They helped move the score up to 180 when it might have been a different story,” Norman said.
“They could have been chasing 150. The ground was quite quick. To go from 170 to 190, it was about par.”
Titans skipper Daniel Maclean took 4/38 in an innings that was completely dominated by Norman.
In reply, Armstrong Creek was 1/70 and looking settled with Clay Mulgrew and Sam Stoneley playing well.
“Mulgrew is a good player,” Norman said.
“He made runs against us in the two dayer and he can bat.”
But when Mulgrew departed for 28 and Stoneley for 37, Anglesea regained control.
It was the slow bowling of right-armer Brett Venables (2/21 from eight overs) and leftie Steve Nicholson (1/22 from eight) that put the brakes on the innings.
Seamer Ky Eskrigge then stepped in to take 4/28 to have the Titans all out for 139.
“Coming from turf background to hard wicket, it’s a little bit of a change for him (Nicholson), but he’s played a lot of cricket so he obviously knows what he’s doing,” Norman said.
“He’s (Eskrigge) working with (coach) Bryan (Thomas) a fair bit, but this year it just seems like he’s taking that next step, which is good.”
Anglesea faces Queenscliff after the break.
“We haven’t seen Queenscliff yet as we got rained out against them, so we don’t know what they’re like, but they’re usually thereabouts,” Norman said.
OCEAN Grove stayed in touch with the top four with a crushing win against Jan Juc. Sam McGlynn thrived in his return to A Grade with 4/31 as the Sharks were bundled out for 70. Fletcher Long stayed patient with an unbeaten 29 to make sure the Grubbers won by nine wickets.
BARWON Heads won a thriller against a plucky Queenscliff. Kane Leathem and Hayden Ilingworth both made half-centuries in Queenscliff’s score of 5/157. But the Seagulls’ batting depth came to the fore even after they were 6/61 with Ben Harris getting 55 and an injured Brent McMinn making 32 not out to pass the total in the 39th over despite some terrific seam bowling from Luke Adam (4/22).
BARRABOOL was too good for Inverleigh with Kane Pickering (74 not out), Lachlan Grigg (60 off 54 balls) and Brydon Barnett (40 not from 21) getting the home side to a hefty 4/219. David Peel (43) played well for Inverleigh, but Barnett followed up his heroics with the bat to take 4/20 and Brad Greenwood grabbed three wickets to have the Kookaburras all out for 148.
