By Justin Flynn
Newly promoted Geelong Cricket Association side St Peters won a thrilling Round 1 encounter against East Belmont in extraordinary circumstances at Winter Reserve on Saturday October 5.
With rain delaying the start of the game, the contest eventually got underway with a slap and dash 25-overs per side contest.
With two runs needed to tie and one ball remaining in near darkness, St Peters’ Josh Sorgiovanni strode to the crease.
He hit the ball to mid wicket and scampered back for two runs thinking he had tied the game, but the return throw was poor and the two batters raced through for an overthrow to give the Saints an epic first-up win.
“It went right down to the wire and right down to the last five seconds of daylight,” captain Luke Ford said.
“It was an interesting finish, that’s for sure.”
With St Peters in Division 1 this season, Ford said it was important for his side to start the season strongly.
“Every team wants to win, but when you’re going to a new competition or a new division, especially the best division in Geelong, you don’t want to let your club down or you don’t want to get embarrassed round one,” he said.
“We certainly rode every moment yesterday thinking at times ‘are we out of it, can we match it here’. This is why we think we’re ready to come into Division One. We have depth right through the grades in every grade and we’re really pleased with how it went yesterday.”
St Peters won the toss and sent East Belmont in, but struggled for breakthroughs after getting Lachie Inglis early.
Lions’ skipper Shane McNamara was in sparkling early season form with a superb 92 from 81 deliveries while recruit James Lidgett contributed an unbeaten 75 from 60. The duo shared a 149-run partnership for the second wicket.
East Belmont finished its 25 overs at 2/182 and Ford said there were no specific instructions for his batting line-up in chasing the total.
“Everyone’s smart enough to know what sort of rate you have to go at,” he said.
“But it was just basically we don’t want to lose wickets in clumps. We at least want to have some wickets in hand if we get behind the run rate.”
The Saints had contributions right through the innings with none better than Brad McMaster’s 84 from 74 balls.
“If you’re batting with someone who is set (McMaster), it’s just getting off strike I thought Matty (Sorgiovanni – 19 off 18 balls), Bill (Will Ford – 29 off 18), Mitch (Ford – 11 off eight), they did it perfectly, knocked the ball around trying to strike right above 100 as best they could and just getting Brad on strike.
“And Bill probably doesn’t get the credit that he probably deserved from yesterday’s earnings. It was 29 off 18. He allowed Brad to relax as well. I think that 29 will go a little bit unnoticed because of what Brad did and then obviously the heroics at the end. But I think Bill certainly deserves just as much credit as Brad does.”
Ford said the mood was positive at Herne Hill Reserve.
“We play cricket to play finals and to have fun,” he said.
“I think that any team is only looking to improve and just to get a couple of wins is kidding themselves and that’s not going to improve the club or the culture. We’re not going into the season thinking we’re going to win a premiership or anything like that. We’re going in there to be confident in our own abilities and strive to play in March.
“Why would we want to train indoors through some cold, wintery months and bad lighting just to come away with a couple of wins and finish in February? So we want to give it a red hot crack. And if we don’t, then that’s okay as well. But we’re not going to sit here and not want to play finals. We want to play finals and we want to play in big games.”
NEWTOWN & CHILWELL defeated reigning premier North Geelong in another thriller.
The match was reduced to 30 overs per side and the Two Blues were sent in, but scored at more than six an over to rack up 9/188.
Lachie Sperling started the season brightly with 57 from 39 balls while Ronnie McKenna made 39 and Pat McKenna 34. Tyson Windus put the finishing touches on the innings with 28 from 18.
Left-arm spinner Bailey Sykes began well with his new club for the Magpies, taking 3/24 from six overs while skipper Tom Mathieson took 3/32.
In reply, North Geelong found runs from Sam Hall and Philip Visser, who both made 43.
At 7/186 with one ball remaining, skipper Dylan Hodge took his third wicket with Noah Guinea taking the catch to give Newtown & Chilwell the perfect start. Sperling capped off a three-vote performance with 3/21 from six overs.
HIGHTON took the points against South Barwon in a 31-overs per side contest.
The Heat were sent in, but found contributions from James Gillard (43 from 45 deliveries) and opener Jack Cook (33). A late 27 from 15 from Tejas Gupta and an unbeaten 13 from former Anglesea quick Darcy Elliott got the score up to 7/172.
Aanlin Cheeran took a fine 3/17 from six miserly overs and Sam Ellis took two wickets.
Ellis then strapped the pads on for South Barwon and came in at 2/53 and with some help from Newcomb & District recruit Cam Egan (31 from 17), gave his side a chance. Ellis made a nice 63 from 62 balls, but fell 10 runs short.
Elliott picked up two wickets as did Gupta for Highton.
GROVEDALE knocked off St Joseph’s in a 31-overs per side game with opener Kane Pozman batting beautifully for 74 from 65 balls.
A final score of 9/153 was competitive without being outstanding as Jack O’Donoghue took four wickets after being introduced into the attack relatively late.
Andrew Casey played well for Joeys with 33 from 36, but Jack Wrigglesworth was star for the Tigers, taking 4/28 to have St Joseph’s all out for 128.
