BATSMEN’S DAY OUT

CASTERTON’S Kane Forbes sends another ball to the boundary during his epic innings of 126 against Wando Vale last Saturday. The Wando Vale batsmen have the job in front of them if they hope to secure first innings points when they bat on Saturday. 130123cn71

THE first day of the Casterton and District Cricket Association’s round eight was an extraordinary afternoon of local cricket.

Home teams Pigeon Ponds and Casterton dominated the visiting bowling attacks. After losing the toss and being invited to bat, Pigeon Ponds belted an enthusiastic group of Dergholm bowlers to the tune of 6-409.

The pattern was repeated atIslandPark(1) where an inserted Casterton hammered a depleted Wando Vale attack to reach 7-356 off 72 overs.

The Pigeons Ponds opening partnership of 241 between maiden century makers Daniel Brody (117) and Ryan Lloyd – Jones (106) set up the Ponds innings, with the patient Scrubbers waiting until the 50^th over for their first wicket.

Mark Treglown, the eighth bowler used, got the bowling figures for the Scrubbers with 4-109 from his 12 overs.

AtIslandPark(1), Kane Forbes (126) and Rick Killey (94) put on 219 runs for the second wicket in a partnership of positive leadership for the Maroons. Both Dergholm and Wando Vale have massive chases to earn the first innings points on Australia Day.

Pigeon Ponds 6-409 v Dergholm

Leonard Dixon (Dergholm) won the toss and sent Pigeon Ponds in to bat. The relatively pleasant weather conditions no doubt influenced Leonard in this decision.

Openers Daniel Brody and Ryan Lloyd-Jones began slowly as the first four inexperienced Dergholm bowlers, Jacob Shannon, Damian Wombwell, Nathan Heron and Tynan Shannon, gave their all for their team.

The batsmen continued to play conservatively as the Pigeon Ponds total began to accumulate.  After 15 overs the score was 0-50, after 28, it was 0-101and after 38 the Ponds were 0-152.

The 200 came up in the 44^th over and the Ponds had still not lost a wicket.

Daniel Brody reached his century as the wily Mark Treglown came into the Dergholm attack. In the 50^th over, Brody jumped down the wicket to Treglown and was stumped for 117 and Pigeon Ponds was 1-241. Despite a plethora of fielding mishaps, the Dergholm bowlers and fieldsmen continued to fight hard as Will Staude (11), Murray Staude (35) and Anthony Close (28) kept the scorers busy.

Opener Ryan Lloyd-Jones (106) completed his century and was then well caught by Andrew Plummer, the second of two great catches for the afternoon. Joel Staude (20), Peter Staude (37 not out) and Ash Simons (8 not out) kept up the late innings momentum for the Ponds.

In the 31 overs after tea, the Ponds posted 257 for the loss of six wickets and at the compulsory closure, Pigeon Ponds had amassed an imposing 6-409 from 70 overs.

Mark Treglown (4-19), Jacob Shannon (1-76) and Damian Wombwell (1-76) were the wicket takes for Dergholm.

Next Saturday will be a big day for the Dergholm batsmen and the Pigeon Ponds bowlers and fielders.

Casterton 7-356 v Wando Vale

Garry Carlin (Wando Vale) won the toss and asked Casterton to bat. The Wando Vale bowling attack lacked three of its more experienced members, which left Toby Murrell,  Jason Cowland, Kyle Carlin, Mark Widdicombe, Mitchell Baugh and Sam Diegman the bowling  mainstays in this contest for second place.

Captain Joe McArlein opened the batting for Casterton with Rick Killey. McArlein was the first to go, caught by Jock Cleary off Kyle Carlin’s bowling for six and the score was 1-27. Kane Forbes then joined Killey and put the indifferent form of the previous weekend’s T20 competition behind him with some solid defence and scintillating shots.

In a strong display of batting, the pair added 219 runs for the second wicket. Kane Forbes made 126, with six sixes and six fours. Rick Killey (94) fell just short of his century and his innings included one six and seven fours.

Killey was caught by Cleary from the bowling of Mitchell Baugh, with the team total on 246. Six runs later, Forbes was caught by Baugh from the bowling of Garry Carlin.  The Vale bowlers had struck back strongly to have Casterton 3-252.

Daniel Wombwell (29) and Jarrad Smith (46) added 74 runs for the fourth wicket as the bowlers tried hard to dry up the scoring rate. To a certain extent they were successful as Toby Murrell (2-66) and Sam Diegman (2-36) picked up late wickets and valuable bonus points for the Vale.

At the compulsory closure after 72 overs, Casterton’s 7-356 was a challenging total. It will be interesting to see the personnel the Vale have available next Saturday when they attempt to chase down this target.

Points

At the half-way point of round eight, the senior points table is: Pigeon Ponds 152, Casterton 134, Wando Vale 112, Edenhope 99, Merino 76, and Dergholm 54. Merino and Edenhope play next weekend at Merino at 1.15pm

Progressive points in the cricketer of the year competition are: Lionel Balzan (Wando Vale) 673, Kane Forbes (Casterton) 665, Murray Staude (Pigeon Ponds) 572,  Rick Killey (Casterton) 552, Daniel Brody (Pigeon Ponds) 465,

The January rising star award for January was awarded to Pigeon Ponds’ Peter Staude, who was the top batsman at the under-17 country week with 127 runs from five completed innings at an average of 25.4. His highest score was 50 on day two against Warrnambool at Port Fairy.

The two round eight junior games have been rescheduled to next weekend. Merino and Wando Vale will play on Saturday and Sunday morning at the Merino Recreation Reserve. Casterton and Edenhope will play a full day game atIslandParkon Sunday.

Meeting

The next Executive Meeting will be held at the Casterton Hotel tonight at 8pm. All clubs should be represented at this meeting. With a two-month gap between meetings, there is a back log of agenda items and we would like to make a prompt start.

This is the penultimate meeting before the senior finals series starts on March 2.

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John Donegan

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