Hamilton and District Cricket Association A grade ladder leader, Tyrendarra, has again fallen at the hands of second-placed St Andrew’s at Clem Young Oval on Saturday, as the home side completed the double against the Darras with victory in both the one-day and two-day format games this summer.

St Andrew’s remains the only team to defeat the Darras, and with the hosts posting 8-280 on day one, it was going to be a big ask of the Tyrendarra batting order to hunt down the target.

In a slow start, the visitors only had 27 on the board when Lachie Kirk (four) was caught behind, but the top order failed to go on and post a big score after all gained starts.

With 118 on the board, half the team was back in the pavilion with only Sam Wilson (55) making the most of his time in the middle.

It was the sixth-wicket partnership between Cameron Mather (53) and Hamish Withers (50) which added 91 in quick time that sent doubts through the home side.

Drews skipper, Russell Elton, struck a double blow as he removed Mather and then Darren Killmister from the very next ball to have the visitors at 7-209 with 11 overs left to reel in the target.

Withers continued to stall the Drews’ victory push, but after he and Dylan Murray (16) took the score to 231, Elton struck again to snare both players and St Andrew’s won by 37 runs as they closed the gap to less than nine points with two rounds remaining.

Casterton District d Gorae-Portland

CASTERTON District secured third spot with a big win over Gorae-Portland at Island Park Turf.

The home side posted 234 the previous week and the visitors resumed day two at 0-6, with Finn Saurine (10) and Sam Roberts (14) taking the tally to 25 before the Maroons struck a triple blow to remove both opening batsmen and Stephen O’Brien (duck).

The visitors collapsed to be 8-75, before Sam Atchison (58) came in at 10 and gave the visitors score some respectability, but the last wicket was taken with only 147 on the board, as Carey Megaw (4-21) and Logan Gibbs (3-39) took the bowling honours.

The Maroons then proceeded to add 2-111 from the 16 available overs to boost its points gained from the game to finish less than eight points adrift of second-placed St Andrew’s, while Gorae-Portland fell to fifth.

Hamilton d Pigeon Ponds

HAMILTON has recorded its second win of the season after chasing down Pigeon Ponds’ score of 102 at Dahl Turf.

The visitors only have themselves to blame for the loss, as they dropped a multitude of catches across the afternoon to allow the home side to secure victory.

Xavier Stevens posted a match-winning knock of 88 at the top of the order, as the Pigeons failing to grab their opportunities.

Anthony Read and Cameron Templeton both posted 38 with the willow to ensure victory was secured, before the home side was dismissed for 218, as Peter Staude (3-31) and Hugh Douglas (2-18) were the best of the Ponds’ bowlers.

Ponds went back in for a second hit and finished on 2-66, as Staude backed up his bowling with 53.

Grampians d College

LAST season’s grand finalists, Grampians and College, resumed their battle at Dunkeld Turf for day two with the Eagles desperately trying to defend its total of 139.

The Pumas resumed at 1-5 after Will Collins was dismissed last week, and Ty Gilmore (one) soon followed his skipper when play resumed after Lachie Watt grabbed the vital early wicket on day two.

Zach Burgess (68) was the mainstay of the innings at number three, guiding the top order through some very good bowling from the Eagles, but the unavailability of Adrian Burn hurt the visitors’ attack, as he has been the main attacking weapon for the side this summer.

Tom Polkinghorne (37) has slipped back into the middle order over the past two games like he has never missed a game, while Daniel Jones blasted 36-not-out at the end to boost the final score to 191.

Evergreen veterans, Lachie Brown (3-45) and Ross Milne (3-31), were the standouts of the College attack.

The loss puts a big dent in the threepeat aspirations of College, which must win both its remaining games handsomely to reach finals, while Grampians is clinging to hopes of a finals appearance, but it too must win both remaining games and hope results in other games go its way to get in.

Portland Colts d Macarthur

PORTLAND Colts secured a vital win in the context of their season, defeating Macarthur by two wickets at Henty Park to remain in the hunt for finals. 

Colts resumed their innings on 0-15 with openers, Alister Stannard and Glenn Hollis, at the crease, and strong early partnerships for Colts proved vital to them getting over the line.

Although Hollis departed for 12, this brought James Chapple to the crease, with him and Stannard combining to put on 45 for the second wicket, before Chapple and his captain, Luke Evans, added 54 for the third wicket.

However, Macarthur was able to keep itself firmly in the contest, with Adam Fry stepping up to pick up the wickets of both Stannard (44) and Chapple (61).

These wickets saw the game well-poised at 4-142, and from there a couple of nice partnerships facilitated by 25 from Daniel Kinghorn wrestled the game back to the home side.

Ultimately, another couple of contributions down the order from Mat Belden (23) and Adam Barbary (19) saw them close in on a first innings victory.

Fry’s 3-70 from 27 overs was Macarthur’s best performance for the day, in a loss which could prove to be devastating for their finals chances.

Tigers secure outright victory

THE first outright victory of the 2023-24 season has come by way of Portland Tigers who successfully defeated South Portland in their second innings at Hanlon Park.

But while it will go down in the books as a strong victory for the Tigers, South Portland certainly came to play on day two, taking 5-33 in the early portion of the day to have the Tigers all out for 135 after they had resumed at 5-102.

Rory Barry finished up with the best figures of the innings taking 4-18, while Tighe Warburton picked up 4-42 from his 14 overs.

And while the Tigers were able to secure a pair of early wickets via Gerard Kissane and their captain, Will Oakley, South quickly rebounded through a big partnership between Scott Martin and Harri Dennert.

The pair put on 91 for the third wicket, with Martin finishing up on 69 while Dennert made 58, both of them in relatively quick fashion.

Eventually, Nik Oakley was able to secure the key breakthrough of Martin, and from there it was up to Tighe Warburton (33-not-out) and skipper Lachie Warburton (16) to help South to 7-191.

Kissane picked up two wickets, as did Ben Atwell (2-5 from two overs).

It was at this point that Lachie Warburton elected to declare in pursuit of a second innings result, with South a chance of securing a reverse outright victory if they bowled out the Tigers for less than 107 runs.

And when they had the Tigers at 3-30, it looked as though South was in with a genuine chance of achieving it.

However, Paul Procter stepped up to take the game away from South once and for all, making 45 off just 31 balls to book the outright victory for the Tigers.

Barry was once again among South’s best in the second innings, taking 3-20 from his six overs.