By Travis Gloury
Seniors – 1st XI
Croydon Rangers 3rd XI vs Yarra Glen
One day game – 40 overs per side
Croydon 5/214 cc
Yarra Glen 4/216
Electing to bowl first in the last home and away game for the season with the result determining relegation in this injury riddled and challenging year for Yarra Glen 1st XI, Jordan Bain partnered Liam Senti with the new ball with out early luck on the quick outfield.
First change bowler Phil Cowan got the first breakthrough in the 13th over from a catch at first slip by Travis Gloury with the score at 1/68.
Yarra Glen’s next breakthrough wouldn`t come until the 29th over from an outfield catch by Phil Cowan at deep square leg off the bowling of Tim Lilley with the score at 2/131 after some tight bowling from Tony Biddiscombe and some run restrictive left arm orthodox spin from Matt Donnelly who would finish with eight overs conceding only 32 runs.
Wickets were hard to come by as Yarra Glen concentrated on restricting the flow of runs with Tim Lilley and Jordan Bain picking up a couple of late wickets each with Croydon Rangers finishing 5/214 after their 40 overs.
Phil Cowan’s eight overs conceding only 30 runs and getting our first breakthrough was also a highlight.
Liam Senti joined Ash Waters at the top of the order in the 5.5 runs per over run chase.
Liam was caught behind in the second over and Phil Cowan followed the next over to be 2/16.
Ash Waters and Tony Biddiscombe were able to make use of the fast outfield to take the score to 2/39 after six overs before Ash was caught at mid off after getting a leading edge for 23 off 23 balls including four boundaries.
Travis Gloury soon followed caught behind in the eighth over with the score 4/42 and seemingly on the ropes.
Tim Williamson joined Tony in the middle and the pair set about batting in a smart fashion with both players striking the ball cleanly making full use of the nice batting conditions and some smart running between the wickets.
Over the next 12 overs the pair shifted the momentum of the game back Yarra Glen’s way and at the half way 20 over drinks break had lifted the run rate to seven runs per over to put the team in the exceptional position of 4/139 in a must win game for Yarra Glen’s 1st XI, leaving 76 runs required in the remaining 20 overs to bat requiring 3.5 runs per over.
With Sam Gloury, Tim Lilley, Brad Willmore, Matt Donnelly and Jordan Bain still yet to bat the pair continued to punish any loose delivery and score at an astonishing rate and remarkably chase down the required 76 runs in the next 36 balls to claim victory by the end of the 26th over with 14 overs to spare in a remarkable display of batting with Tony finishing with 81 n.o off 60 balls with 11 boundaries and a six and Tim Williamson finishing with 90 n.o in his fourth game of the season off 68 balls including 14 boundaries in a new 5th wicket Club Record partnership of 174, eclipsing the previous club record standing for nine years of 129 by John Orren and Grant Braden in 2015/16 against Yarra Junction.
2nd XI
Yarra Glen vs Wonga Park 6th XI
One day game – 36 overs each team
Wonga Park 8/177
Sam Holland 2/13
Lachlan Cowan 2/24
Brodie McCann 2/33
Yarra Glen 117
Sean Beath 36
Blake Davey 15
3rd XI
Yarra Glen 9/155
Lucas Burke 43
Richard Gurney 22
Sean Hill 13
Wandin 3rd XI
3/171
One wicket each to Dylan Shambrook, Spencer Boers and Nathan Deringowski.
Under 16
This week under 16 boys took on top team South Croydon in a cutthroat semi-final.
After losing the toss being sent into bat in dewy conditions Yarra Glen lost Sam Holland and Dylan Shambrook in consecutive balls to have us in early trouble at 2/8 after five overs.
Spencer Boers and Sam Gloury began a recovery mission with a partnership of 31 before Spence was bowled for eight.
Sam Gloury (14n.o) retired soon after, after facing his allotted 50 balls bringing Charlie Watts to the crease, courageously batting despite dislocating his shoulder the week before playing basketball.
Kade Smith and Charlie (13) were both dismissed however leaving Sam Donnelly (8n.o) and Tristan Riddiford (1n.o) to guide us through to the close.
Yarra Glen finished our first 25 overs at 5/68 and the boys would need to bowl and field well to keep us in the contest.
As they always do our boys responded with great fight and character.
Dylan Shambrook made an early breakthrough removing their opener in the second over to a great catch from Charlie Watts behind the stumps with the score on 2.
Spencer Boers (1/2) was next to strike having their no. 3 batter caught behind with the score on 20.
Sam Donnelly (1/9) found the edge of their number 4 soon after and suddenly South Croydon were 3/23.
Sam O’Callaghan (1/8) took the next wicket, hitting the stumps of their number 5 batter, and when Sam Gloury (1/8) struck after a magnificent running one handed outfield catch by vice captain Sam Holland we were right on top with the score at 5/30.
South Croydon steadied moving to 60 before late wickets to Kade Smith (1/9) and Dylan Shambrook (2/7) left South Croydon at 7/68 at the end of their first 25 overs.
A great fightback by Yarra Glen boys and one that means the game is evenly poised at the end of day one.
Whilst there remains a lot of work to do in the second half of this game, the character, fighting spirit and camaraderie of our boys again shine through today in this performance in what was a great game of junior cricket.
Under 14
Qualifying final
Xavier Thwaites 2/1 off 2 overs
One wicket each to Tait Harper and Hayden Monds
Yarra Glen/Kilsyth 97
Ronak Mehra 20
Lawson Appleton 22
Under 12
Yarra Glen 6/104
Healesville 5/107
Second vs third on the finalised ladder for regular home and away matches saw both sides evenly matched leading into the knock out semi-final round.
Yarra Glen captain Flynn Bain winning the toss and electing to bat.
Openers of Flynn Bain (4) and Harvey Williamson (20n.o) got off to a nervous start, Flynn run out in the second over with a direct hit to the stumps from mid-on, Yarra Glen 1/6. Xander Nielsen (4) showed intent but got knocked over in the fouth over, Yarra Glen 2/14.
Heath Burke (6) came together with Nixon Murphy (0) with Nixon facing 4 really good deliveries before getting knocked over, Yarra Glen 3/30.
Oliver Lilley (1) looked to capitalise on his recent form but was run out, Yarra Glen 4/33.
Heath Burke lost his wicket very next ball, Yarra Glen in all sorts of trouble at 5/33 in the ninth Over.
Ben “Big Show” Holland (2) worked hard but was bowled in the 11th Over, Yarra Glen 6/42 with 13 overs left to bat. Enter the hard hitting Wyatt Hill (26n.o) and Poppy Mcleish (6n.o), both batters went about playing some very smart cricket, both retiring and returned batting out the overs in conjunction with Harvey Williamson to finish the allotted overs at 6/104 which was an incredible fight back and very defendable score.
An injury to key opening bowler Josh Holland put further pressure on the bowling unit. Yarra Glen bowled tight and capitalised with Harvey Williamson (2/20 off 4 overs) knocking over the opener, Healesville 1/7. Pressure was on the Healesville batters which saw Heath Burke get a terrific direct hit run out, Healesville 2/7, Game On!
Ben Holland (1/19 off 3 overs) would be the next wicket taker knocking down the timber, Healesville 3/36. The game settling with some smart batting saw Harvey Williamson get a run out, Healesville 4/57.
Harvey Williamson would rattle the stumps once more, Healesville 5/87. With 5 overs remaining and Healesville requiring 18 runs to win the Yarra Glen bowlers would continue to pressure the incoming retired batters.
Unfortunately it wasn’t to be Yarra Glen’s night with Healesville getting the job done in the 22nd over.
Players of the Match Harvey Williamson, Wyatt Hill and Poppy Mcleish.
Special thanks to all the parents, grandparents and care givers for supporting their children in season 24/25.
