Wallington’s James Sood and Billy Gravett had never batted together before, but left Newcomb’s Ervin Reserve on Saturday breaking a club record that has spanned more than three decades.
The English imports shared an unbroken 255-run partnership against Newcomb on day one of the final Bellarine Peninsula Cricket Association A2 Grade round as the Wallabies bounded to a massive 4/368 declared.
It is the highest A Grade partnership in club history, beating the previous best of 244 in 1993/94.
Sood, from Coventry, made 158 not out from 148 deliveries and Gravett, from north London, piled on 133 not out from 116.
“It’s the first time we’ve batted together this year and I was saying to James after I went down the pitch to him and I said ‘I think this is the most fun that I’ve had with you in Australia since we’ve been here’,” Gravett said.
The pair joined forces when Wallington was 4/113.
“It wasn’t like we were in massive trouble, but it was quite an important time where the game could have gone either way,” Sood said.
“We didn’t go out there and try to slog, it was just taking it a step at a time.”
Gravett is more of a bowling all-rounder and hasn’t had much of a hit this summer. That may now change.
“I haven’t really shown much with the bat this year, but yesterday was probably the first time that I felt quite comfortable in myself playing on synthetic pitches,” he said.
“But here at Wallington, we have such a strong batting line up that it has worked out that I’ve been a bit deeper down the line up this year. So going into finals, I think he (coach Matt Sampson-Barnes) was hoping that he could give us all a bit of a chance to get some form. And so we spoke about it and he just put me up the order a bit and it seemed to work.”
Both cricketers have loved their time playing on the Bellarine.
“There’s definitely a positive vibe around the club,” Sood said.
“The atmosphere is always supportive.”
“This is definitely the best experience that I’ve had, specifically in cricket – the club is awesome,” Gravett said.
“Can’t ask for more from not only the coach and the rest of the squad, but the women’s side, the support that we’ve been shown from them, from some of the families, they’ve taken us in on weekends and cooked us meals and had us stay at their house for a couple of days. It’s been pretty awesome.”
Portarlington is well on top in the battle for fourth spot against Surf Coast. The winner will play finals while the loser will miss out and the Demons compiled 9/259 with Brenton Toole (57) and James Tilders (54 not out) getting runs while Blake Robinson (4/87 from 25 overs) toiled hard for the Suns.
Collendina already has first-innings points in the bag against St Leonards. Corey Walter grabbed five wickets for the Cobras with the Saints all out for 137 of which Paul Hassan contributed 51. In reply, Dina is 2/138 with Walter on 53 and Jacob Gasior making 49.
Inverleigh made 210 against Winchelsea with Lachie Platt making 80 and Keiran McNally 54 and Mitchell Buhrmann grabbing four wickets. Shane Murdoch also bowled well, taking 3/51 from 27 overs. In reply, Winch is one wicket down after three overs.
