SOUTH Portland has gone one better in the 2023-24 Portland and District Cricket Association under-16 season, taking home premiership glory against Portland Tigers by 78 runs at Cavalier Park.

The Demons’ victory was set up by an epic first wicket partnership between Tighe Warburton and Eamon Drew, with both standing unbeaten after passing three figures, retiring not out on 101 and 103 respectively.

It was a performance which set up South to post a massive total, with Sooria Sonti’s 29 not out from just 19 deliveries ensuring they got to 1-251 after 40 overs.

South coach Nathan Liersch said the game was a great occasion which saw two high calibre teams battle it out.

“Winning the toss was a major win for us, it let the two boys Tighe and Eamon get away to a great start, they got the ball rolling with a couple of fours and it just sort of flowed from there,” Liersch said.

“When your two openers make a hundred each, you’re going to be pretty well-placed, but I thought Sooria came out and did his job, he ran between the wickets really well and kept the scoreboard ticking over.”

None of the Tigers’ bowlers were able to secure a wicket, but it was Artie Harvey who secured the tidiest figures of the bowling unit, finishing with 0-29 from his seven overs, while Harry Askew was next in line with 0-28 from his six overs.

Despite being set such a mammoth total, the Tigers would certainly have felt they were in with a shot of executing an incredible run chase, with the Harvey (Seb and Artie) capable of matching Drew and Warburton’s century efforts.

However, Drew stepped up in the very first over of the match to clean up Artie Harvey’s stumps with an extraordinary delivery that may well have been the nail in the coffin.

In saying this Seb Harvey and Mika Bottrall still fought the good fight in an effort to rescue their side, with the former making it to 84 while the latter made 40.

It wasn’t to be however as South wicket keeper Will McIntyre produced a key stumping off the bowling of Warburton to dismiss Harvey, with Warburton also cleaning up Bottrall.

Warburton finished with figures of 2-30 from his nine overs, while Drew (1-48 off 10) and William Oliver (1-6) were the other wicket takers.

While a 78-run margin of victory would suggest a pretty comfortable win, Liersch said he felt the game was close the whole way.

“Getting Artie out was probably the key for us, he’s an outstanding batsman and our worry was that the two Harvey boys would go on with it and make hundreds themselves,” he said.

“I thought Seb and Mika Bottrall batted really well under pressure, Seb was unlucky not to get his hundred as Tighe came on to bowl and just built some pressure.

“It was great to see a kid in Will McIntyre who had never touched a pair of keeping gloves until the new year, for him to step up and take a crucial stumping was a testament to how far this team has come.”

President “proud” of how season has panned out

PDCA president Jamie Ross has said he is “very proud” of how the 2023-24 season has panned out in light of the significant changes the cricket landscape has witnessed in Portland but says there’s still plenty more work to be done.

“I think the biggest accomplishment for us is that all four teams we sent away to Country Week were full of Portland kids, we weren’t borrowing players from other associations, and that hasn’t always been the case,” Ross said.

Ross said the association’s first season as a standalone junior competition, after the senior contingent moved to the Hamilton and District Cricket Association, had been a success but that their progress and status would continue to be under review.

“We’ll have a meeting in the next few weeks to discuss what’s taken place so far and the direction we want to take the association into the future,” he said.