HOUNOURS are even after the opening day of the Hamilton and District Cricket Association round 12 A grade clash between College and Pigeon Ponds College Turf on Saturday.
Even home ground advantage didn’t sway the Eagles from sending the Pigeons in to bat, after Charles Murrie won the toss, but his decision was vindicated after Henry Bensch took the prized wicket of Simon Close (15) in only the fifth over of the day when he had the opener dismissed lbw.
Close is the leading run scorer for the competition and entered the game with two scores in the 90s, so to grab his wicket so quickly was a boon for the home side.
Peter Staude would normally be joined by Michael Close when the first wicket falls, but the number three was unavailable on Saturday and his spot was filled by Hamish McCrae (five), who was also sent back to the pavilion after Bensch claimed his second wicket.
At 2-34 the visitors were shaky and needed a partnership, as Anthony Close joined his skipper in the middle looking to turn the flow of the match back to his team.
They saw the innings through to the drinks break without further loss, before carrying on to reach 113 when Staude (60) fell to a good catch behind the stumps by Angus Brown to give as Lachie Brown the breakthrough.
Enter Adrian Burn as fifth change bowler, who changed the course of the innings by claiming the wickets of Noah Hildebrand (five), Will Staude (16), Anthony Close (68), Josh Grant (zero) and George Austin (one) in claiming 5-23 from 11 unchanged overs.
The Pigeons collapsed from being 3-138 to be all out for 193, and worse still, the team failed to bat out its allotted overs which in the top grade is a cardinal sin.
Burn took the honours with the ball, while Bensch finished with 2-27 while the rest of the Eagles attack backed them up to rout the middle-lower order.
With six overs to bat to see out day one, College sent Heath Schmidt and Jack Austin to the wicket to repel the Ponds opening bowlers, Jack Beaton and Simon Close.
Having seen off the three overs available to Beaton in the time allowed, Close entered the last over of the day with Austin on strike and the bowler knew he had to claim a wicket for the Pigeons to end the day on a high.
With the fourth ball of the over, Austin shuffled across his stumps and was wrapped on the pads with the entire Ponds team appealing in unison to gain the affirmative answer and the Eagles ended the day on 1-5.
Grampians v Casterton District
GRAMPIANS welcomed Casterton District to Dunkeld Turf, and the home side took the day one honours by dismissing the visitors for 152.
After winning the toss, Maroons skipper, Kaden Humphries, batted first on what appeared to be a very good surface, but with only the fourth ball of the game, Stefan Burnell sent opener Ben Holmes back to the pavilion with a duck next to his name in the book when he was bowled.
Burnell shared the new ball with Ryan Burgess and the pair delivered an impeccable line and length, which saw the Casterton District batsmen struggle to get them away for runs.
The two bowlers combined to send Oliver Foster back to the pavilion after Burgess held the catch offered from the bowling of Burnell for only five with 21 on the board.
Further woe would befall the visitors on that score when Michael Jarrad, who was returning to the batting order after not having batted in a game since round two, nicked of to Carl Joyce for 16.
At 3-21 the visitors were in real trouble, but Rick Killey and Kane Forbes came together to rescue the innings with an 82-run fourth wicket partnership that took the side to the afternoon tea break without further loss.
Upon resumption though, both batsmen were back in the hutch as Joe Sutherland struck twice within nine balls to firstly send Forbes (37) on his way after Joyce held a good catch, then he had Killey (43) clean bowled with the score on 104.
The visitors collapsed after the break to lose their last seven wickets for only 49 runs with Carey Megaw (13) and Joshua Edwards (12) the only other players to reach double figures.
The wickets were shared around by the Pumas, as Sutherland took the honours with 3-24, but Harrison Wood adding to his season tally with 2-26 and Burnell 2-34.
St Andrew’s v Hamilton
HAMILTON travelled to Clem Young Oval looking to keep its chances of reaching the finals alive with victory against St Andrew’s.
The visitors lost the coin toss and were in the field, as Brendan Huf and Kane Taylor opened the batting for the home side and proceeded to make a quick start to the innings with 21 coming from the first four overs.
After this start, Hamilton skipper, Simon Sharrock, swung Hamish Cook into the attack for the sixth over and he had Huf (13) caught by Riley Casey in his first over to claim the key wicket.
Cook would continue his fine first spell, as he gave Jake Lang first catch of the innings behind the stumps when he dismissed Steven Cameron (one) with 35 on the board.
Lang pouched catch number two when Taylor (23) edged a ball from Sharrock with the team tally on only 48, and from there the Drews wore a track to and from the middle as wickets tumbled.
The home side stumbled to the afternoon tea break with seven wickets back in the shed, but it soon was in even more trouble when the ninth wicket fell with only 120 on the board to give Cook his first A grade five-wicket haul.
If not for a last wicket rear guard stand of 70 between Drews skipper, Simon Hatherell (15), and Darryl Fry (90-not-out), the home side would have been routed by the visitors.
Despite his best efforts, Hatherell couldn’t see Fry to a well-deserved century from the number five spot in the order, but Fry batted for 157 balls in posting his highest score of the summer with seven boundaries.
St Andrew’s was dismissed for 190 with Cook taking the bowling honours with 5-49 from 22 overs, while Riley Casey grabbed 3-25 in support which left Hamilton six overs to see out the day.
Sharrock (17-not-out) and Brenton Callaby (six-not-out) saw out time, finishing on 0-23 to hand the first day honours to the visitors and leaving Hamilton 168 more runs to chase for victory with all ten wickets in hand.
