THE Portland and District Cricket Association’s 2021-22 A grade season comes to a close todaywith Tyrendarra and Portland Colts battling it out in the grand final.

Henty Park’s turf wicket will be the venue for the biggest contest of the season, with the neighbouring hard wicket hosting the B grade grand final between the same two clubs.

Colts and Tyrendarra have a rich modern history of competing for premierships, however this season the two teams have rarely seen one another – with one contest in round eight, while two other matches were washed out – round five and round 15.

That round eight contest was a tight one, with Colts batting first and posting 8-128 and bowling Tyrendarra out for 104 runs, a 24-run win.

Mathew Belden top scored for Colts with 31 runs and took three wickets with the ball, however the veteran spinner is in doubt for tomorrow’s contest after picking up a hamstring injury fielding in the semi-final.

Tyrendarra meanwhile was championed by all-rounder Darren Killmister, starting the contest with tidy figures of 1-11 with the ball before setting sail with the bat, launching four sixes on his way to 37 runs from just 34 deliveries.

Tyrendarra arrives at tomorrow’s match-up full of confidence after dismantling Go-Ports in the semi-final and captain Cam Mather said it was tough to get a read on how his team matches up with Colts.

“It’s a bit of a funny one for us going in against Colts because we’ve only had the one proper hit out with them this season,” he said.

“We lost to them in a one-dayer early in the season and then had two wash outs so we haven’t had a good look at them at all.

“I think we’re a pretty even match-up, we’ve got a lot of the same strengths.

“The first thing that comes to mind for me is respecting the experience they have, this is a team that’s played and won a lot of grand finals and they’re going to be mentally ready for the challenge “Obviously Bomber (Luke Evans) will be a prize wicket for us, we’ll be hoping he doesn’t have the chance to take it away from us.

“Stan (Alister Stannard) too is an obvious one, he’s made runs all season and if he gets going at the top of the order they’ll be well on their way to a big score.”

 Portland Colts co-captain Luke Evans shared a similar sentiment to that of Mather.

“With Tyrendarra as an opponent, you know it doesn’t matter what kind of form they’ve been in and they’re going to turn up and play hard in the biggest games of the season,” he said.

“We’ve seen it every season for a long time with the calibre of leaders they have, players like Cam Mather and Ben Menzel, they’re all class.

“They didn’t have the kind of regular season we’d normally see from them but then they went off in the semi-final and ended things for a quality Go-Ports team.

“This is my first time playing them in a final since coming back to cricket (two seasons ago) so on a personal level, I’m really keen on the challenge.

“As a team we’ll just have to approach it like we would with any other game, making sure everyone plays their roles and does whatever they can to get us over the line.”

B Grade Portland Colts and Tyrendarra will battle it out in the B grade grand final on the hard wicket at Henty Park.

Tyrendarra reaches the grand final after sneaking into finals and rolling reigning premiers South Portland last round in a thrilling upset result.

Colts meanwhile snagged a late win against Go-Ports which went right down to the wire, securing two final wickets in the last over of the day with just nine runs left to defend.

Tyrendarra and Colts have met on three occasions this season.

The first was in round five, with Colts winning by 13 runs in a high-scoring wrestle where more than 300 runs were scored.

The teams met again in round nine and Tyrendarra evening the ledger, winning by two wickets in a run chase that went down to the final two balls of the afternoon.

Colts climbed back on top of the rivalry in round 14 at Henty Park, chasing down a first innings total of 162 in the final over of the match – a match also coincidentally resolved with two deliveries to spare.