Minor premiers take on defenders in cricket final

By Cricket | March 11, 2016 at 1:50 pm 0 Comments

On Saturday morning hear the thoughts of A Grade Captains Daniel Poidevin and Andrew Swaffield on Yass FM 100.3 after the 9am news.

TRIGGS SHIELD – A GRADE

Yass Golf Club vs Bowning @ Victoria Park, Yass

It doesn’t get much better, minor premiers Yass Golf Club taking on defending premiers Bowning in the A grade grand final.

Bowning won their way to the decider following a massive 9 wicket victory over the Royal Pirates. Despite the absence of Beau Walker will likely be missing again on Saturday, it was the Bowning of last season. Accurate bowling, slick fielding and a brisk scoring but solid top order guiding them home.

Last Saturday’s performance against the Pirates will give Bowning plenty of heart, but they will know this season they have struggled against only one side, Yass Golf Club.

YGC comprehensively won each of their three contests this season with captain Daniel Poidevin scoring 110, 95no and 47no at an incredible average of 252. If Bowning are any chance they’ll need to devise a strategy to remove Poidevin early. If they can do that, they know the remainder of the YGC batting order are rarely exposed early and may be vulnerable. Should Poidevin go early it will fall to bearded veteran Rob Field, who is playing his 18^th grand final, Chris Doyle and Phil Sparnon to score the bulk of the runs.

Bowning captain Andrew Swaffield used his bowlers well last week and each of them responded in the right way when given the ball. Jamie Apps, Anthony O’Mara and Dave Brown bowled stump to stump while the unlikely destroyer was Jim Burleigh, who removed dangerous Royal captain Nick Pollack with his first ball.

Swaffield didn’t play in two of this season three contests against YGC and there is certainly a different aura around the team when he’s on deck. His top score of 84 in last year’s grand final was one of the best innings in a decider for many years.

Swaffield, along with Dave Brown (who scored 42 in last year’s Grand Final) and Brett Newman all batted well in last week’s preliminary final, and will need to do it again on Saturday.

Brown will be carrying some demons into the game having scored only 0, 3 and 9 this season against the YGC.

The YGC bowlers will be keen to have another crack at Brown knowing his wicket will take them a long way to victory. There’s great depth to the YGC bowling attack, in each game against Bowning this season different bowlers have been the main wicket takers.

Luke Southwell has stepped nicely into the opening bowler role while his partner Chris Bradley still retains that demon element. Cal Kemp and Rob Field are always hungry for wickets and there’s plenty of variety in the attack through crafty Lachlan Kemp and the spinning Daniels, Kemp and Poidevin.

Of plenty of interest will be Bowning’s tactics. Last year against the Yass Soldiers Club Snipers they were bold by taking the ‘calypso’ approach to batting. Throwing caution to the wind they punished the YSC bowlers early and before Snipers could gather themselves, Bowning was well on its way to establishing a match winning tally of 194.

Yass Golf Club has been the most consistent side all season and based on that and their hunger for the title they should be hoisting the Triggs Shield on Saturday afternoon.

Teams:

Yass Golf Club: Daniel Poidevin (capt), Chris Bradley, Chris Doyle, Rob Field, Jarrad Forlonge, Mark Howard, Cal Kemp,  Daniel Kemp, Lachlan Kemp,  Boyd Roche (wk), Luke Southwell, Phil Sparnon

Bowning: Andrew Swaffield (capt), Jamie Apps, Dave Brown, Angus Burleigh, Jim Burleigh, Brett Newman, Anthony J O’Mara, Beau O’Mara (wk), Lachy O’Mara, Brad Smith, Dylan Stephenson, Beau Walker, Stephen Winter

Round 2 @ Bowning

YGC 8/226 ( D Poidevin 110, R Feld 90, A O’Mara 3/49)

def

Bowning 147 (B Walker 85, L O’Mara 21, L Southwell 3/12, J Forlonge 3/33)

Opening partnership 198, Bowning 6/17

Round 9 @ Victoria Park

YGC 5/165 (D Poidevin 95no, J Burleigh 3/31)

def

Bowning 83 (B Walker 15, C Kemp 3/10, D Poidevin 2/6, J Forlonge 2/11)

Major Semi-final @ Victoria Park

Bowning 71 (L O’Mara 15, C Bradley 4/17, R Field 3/9. C Kemp 2/9)

Lost to

YGC 3/73 (D Poidevin 47no, A Swaffield 2/17)

SWEENEY CUP – B GRADE

Murrumbateman  vs Gundaroo @ O’Connor Park, Yass

Of the three grand finals being played this weekend this one is the hardest to pick. On paper Gundaroo field the strongest side however Murrumbateman also has a talented line-up with a strong team spirit.

Gundaroo come into the grand final with a hard fought 26-run victory over Harden. Jeremy Clarke put the troubles of the semi-final behind him to be the main contributor with 44 runs and 4 wickets.

Murrumbateman will be as thrilled as any side to be in the decider. They turned around a massive defeat in round 13 against Gundaroo to reverse the result only two weeks later in the major semi-final.

Their fate will rest with Andrew Clarke, who is a powerful batsman with a good eye, and James Gray who also possesses the same qualities.

Their wildcard could be opening bowler Andy McLean, who has good pace and can do plenty with the ball while left-armer Terry Tillyard took 4 wickets in the major semi-final and can’t be underestimated.

The hardest task for Gundaroo this season was to meet most people’s expectation and make the grand final. Now they are there the pressure is off and they can concentrate on their cricket.

Anthony Mortimer and Mitchell Callagher are both in form with bat while captain Sean Egan boasts a season average of 50.

Gundaroo’s bowling line-up has depth and variety with Mortimer, Callagher Clarke, Jamie Hogan and Tony Love all able to take wickets.

Murrumbateman were clever in the semi-final, they bowled to their field placements and took the majority of catches that came their way. They’ll need to do that again on Saturday but this time round they might finish just short of claiming the major prize.

Round 3 @ Murrumbateman

Washout

Round 13 @ Gundaroo

Murrumbateman 155 (A McLean 29, J Gray 24, D Roscoe 3/29, S Egan 2/8)

Lost to

Gundaroo 1/164  (A Mortimer 85, R Clarke 57)

Major Semi-final @ Murrumbateman

Murrumbateman 177 (A Clarke 70, J Gray 65, A Mortimer 5/17)

def

Gundaroo 161 (A Mortimer 42, M Callagher 34, J Vant 34, T Tillyard 4/33, A McLean 3/25)

YASS SOLDIERS CLUB SHIELD – C GRADE

Yass Soldiers Club vs Boorowa @ Bowning Oval

Last year’s Sweeney Cup premiers Yass Soldiers Club find themselves in this season’s C Grade decider following the mid-season split of grades.

Some early indifferent form is now behind them and it is no coincidence the return of Josh Paton has had an impact. Paton brings a solid all-round aspect to the game and along with Joe Logue, who spent the later part of the season playing with the A grade side, they hold the key to YSC’s claim for another title.

YSC also has an X-factor in Brad Hansen, who’s scored nearly 400 runs for the season and taken 27 wickets,  should he fire Boorowa could be in trouble.

Unbeaten since the Christmas break, Boorowa are the form team of the competition. They’ve found a good rhythm an won’t be deterred by taking on YSC, who they comfortably defeated in round 11.

They easily disposed of Yass Golf Club in the preliminary final by dismantling the Colts top order and extinguishing any attempts of a fight back.  Stuart Gay was the hero last week claiming 5/25, he’ll be looked to again to halt the YSC attack who enjoy throwing caution to the win to score quickly.

Results are split between these two sides so it’s another decider which could go either way but the Horns should be able to take the shield back to their sponsor.

Round 4 @ Boorowa

YSC  106 (J Logue 26, A Kennedy 24, D Smith 22no)

def

Boorowa 72  (J Logue 3/10, D Smith 2/31)

Round 11 @ Bookham

Bookham 139 (M Canellis 46, M Batt 26, J Logue 4/12)

def

YSC 83 (B Hansen 35, J Paton 20, M Poplin 5/23)

YDCA Presentation Dinner is on Saturday April 2, 7pm at the Yass Soldiers Club