TYRENDARRA Cricket Club has added another piece of silverware to its cabinet on Saturday with a five-wicket victory over Portland Tigers in the Hamilton and District Cricket Association’s B grade final at Alexandra Park.

The game was evenly poised early with Mitch Turner (27) and Mark Anderson (26) getting the Tigers off to a decent start with a half-century stand at the top of the order, while the Darras were able to keep the run rate to a manageable level.

However, post-drinks break the game swung massively in the favour of Tyrendarra, with Macauly Baker doing the damage for his side as his line and length bowling was both economical and damaging, as he took 4-20 from his seven overs.

Darras skipper Shay Rhodes was also effective, taking 3-19 from 6.3 overs, while Will Kirk had 2-24 and Stuart Hill picked up the remaining wicket.

Artie Harvey was the only other Tigers batsman to reach double figures with his 20, as they were bowled out for 119 in 36.3 overs.

Rhodes said his side’s success simply came down to them bowling good line and length for a long period of time.

“We know the Tigers have a lot of talent in their batting lineup and have the ability to hurt you, Mark is pretty key for them, if he gets going, he can be hard to stop,” Rhodes said.

“We had some dropped catches early and I thought we might be in for a long day, but we tried to take the pace off the ball and that proved to work really well.

“With ‘Macca’ (Baker) the way he bowls you’d think blokes would be able to just hit him all day, but he puts it in a good spot and gets wickets as a result.

“Will bowled really well …  he stemmed the flow early and got some reward as well.”

If the Tigers were going to be any chance of defending this total, early wickets would be essential, and they were able to pick up one early with Harvey removing the Darras’ Brett Litchfield in the third over of the day.

However, this opened the door for Kirk to put on a massive partnership with opener Andrew Stuchbery, with the pair seeing the Darras past the 100-run mark and very close to home.

Shortly after Kirk brought up his half-century, the Tigers were able to stage the latest of late fightbacks, with their skipper Toby Ralph picking up three wickets and Ben McDowell taking one, as they put one last scare through their opponents.

Rhodes and Hamish Aitken stood firm in the middle order though and were able to get their side across the line with five wickets and six overs to spare.

Kirk was named man of the match for an excellent all-round performance which saw him pick up a pair of wickets before making a half-century which proved to be the difference in Tyrendarra’s win.

Rhodes said in spite of them chasing a relatively low total it was nonetheless a very difficult task.

“I definitely would have batted first had I won the toss, chasing is always so difficult in a final and we saw even when we were 1-104 chasing 120 the game still wasn’t quite over,” he said.

“I think chasing a total like that is made for ‘Chickenhawk’ (Stuchbery), he takes his time and puts a price on his wicket.

“Will again hasn’t batted much this season, and when he came down to B grade first game he made a duck, he was dropped down to number eight for the semi-final and by all reports batted really well, and he made the most of it when he got his opportunity.

“He hit the ball as good as I’ve seen anyone hit it for us this season.”

Rhodes said winning the premiership is a remarkable turnaround for a club which was close to losing its B grade team only a few years back, as he credited Mick Aitken for reviving the club in that respect.

“We were going to let the league know we wouldn’t have a B grade side, and when Mick caught wind of it he said he’d see what we could do, in those early days it was just about getting a team on the park week after week.

“We knew if the club ever went into recess, it would be a long way back, and my guess is it would never have gotten back, so to keep it going and then get to this point is a fantastic effort.”