COLERAINE dominated the Hamilton and District Cricket Association D grade contest against Tarrington Cricket Club at Turnbull Street Oval with an emphatic win to kick off its season.
After a delayed start to the season, teams were glad to get on the park and Coleraine sent the visitors in to bat first and opening batsmen, Peter Green (11) and Matthew Pickett (25), were the only two Tarrington players to make double figure scores.
The rest of the batting order was ripped apart by the Coleraine bowlers, the visitors lost six wickets for seven runs after the openers departed to limp to a score of 60.
William Jackson was on fire with the ball, taking four wickets off his 7.1 overs.
The Coleraine middle order delivered in spades, as Jackson backed up his performance with the ball scoring 59, while Braeden Marett also notched up a half century.
There were many other contributors with the bat resulting in a massive score of 197 after just 28.5 overs.
Peter and Rohan Green each picked up two wickets for the losing side.
Macarthur d. Grampians
ROUND one provided an enthralling contest as Macarthur took on Grampians in a high-scoring match and it was the Demons that came away on top.
The home team won the toss and elected to bowl first, a decision that looked like the right one, as Macarthur’s batting order quickly fell to 4-59 thanks to a great spell of bowling from Hugh Prentice.
Warwick Mann hit a quickfire 58 off 42 balls, including 10 fours and two sixes, teaming up with Andrew Bowe (50) and Chris Moutray (29) in the lower order to post a total of 227.
Prentice was the pick of the bowlers with impressive figures of 4-36 off his seven overs.
The chase didn’t start well for the Pumas when Bingham Jarrett knocked over Prentice for a golden duck, but they managed to recover well.
Derek Prentice (30) and Angus Frost (36) built the foundation for a big total, but both were removed by Mann before they could turn their start into a massive score.
Mark Lazzari scored 51 runs before Jarrett managed to find the edge with Ian Brilley safely taking the ball in his gloves, Mick Alderman soon followed suit with 39 runs to his name.
Ken Bird almost willed his team over the line with an unbeaten 22 but his team ran out of time falling just six runs short after their 40 overs.
Jarrett was a wrecking ball taking 4-29 off his eight overs to set the tone with the new ball.
St Andrews d. Tahara
ST Andrew’s started its season with an important win as it bowled out Tahara in just 32 overs to win by 19 runs at PP3.
The Drews won the toss and out walked Craig Dimond and Tony Hill to open the innings with some free-flowing runs.
The pair started well, putting 34 runs on the board before Hill was sent back to the sheds on 13, before Bailey Walsh (20) was the next man to depart.
Dimond continued losing partners around him and eventually fell for 36 runs from his 46 balls.
The middle to lower order played their roles spending some time at the crease, with Lachlan Crawford (15), John Hockey (15) and Matt Hill (29-not-out) all scoring valuable runs to push the total score up to 172.
The Blue Caps shared the wickets around, with the best figures coming from Alexander McAdam who took 2-21 from his eight overs.
Tahara’s Angus Lambert and Harry Goodman opened the batting and clearly showed they were going to take the game on, setting a high run rate early in the innings before Goodman departed for 21.
Lambert looked at home before he fell for 29, but the St Andrew’s bowlers began to put the clamps on and dry up the runs through Crawford who took three consecutive wickets to leave the Blue Caps in a bit of strife at 4-78 chasing 172.
Despite a solid father-son partnership from Travis Rhook (20) and Jamie Rhook (29 not out), the visitors fell short as they were bowled out for 153.
Tarrington Tigers d. Hamilton
TARRINGTON Tigers accounted for Hamilton in its first game of the season, thanks to a great team performance with the ball which restricted Hamilton to just 83.
‘Runs on the board’ was the mentality of the Tigers, but the innings didn’t start as the home team would’ve liked, as Hamilton’s Jobe Dunn rattled the stumps twice, removing Adam Bester for a duck and Craig Jackson for four.
Ashton Kearney anchored the innings with his patient knock of 24, while Riley Millard (28 not out) went about his innings patiently and held up an end, combining with Will Bester (23 not out).
This turned out to be a match-winning partnership which almost doubled the team’s score to 120 after 40 overs.
Dunn was outstanding with the new ball and finished with 2-14 from his six overs.
Hamilton started its batting innings with a target of 120 and a confidence that if they batted the full 40 overs, they would be a great chance.
The chase got off to a very shaky start with the top order falling to 5-35, Matt Dunn (28) and Steven Murphy (17) were the only players that managed to get the Tigers’ bowlers away, but it was to no prevail.
Hamilton was bowled out for 83 after just 30.3 overs as Adam Bester and Kearney each took three wickets.