SPRING rain proved frustrating with several of last Saturday’s fixtures in the Busselton Margaret River Cricket Association abandoned or rescheduled due to damp and wet wickets.
The A grade game between St Mary’s and Margaret River was rescheduled for later in the season whilst the B grade fixture between Vasse and Margaret River was abandoned.
Despite rain at the scheduled start of play, the other A grade game between Dunsborough and Cowaramup went ahead as a reduced overs match.
On winning the toss Dunsborough A grade captain Aaron Mott elected to bowl to take advantage of the conditions.
Despite the sticky wicket, the home side was unable to extract much from the wicket with Cowaramup compiling a competitive total of 9/144 off their 35 overs. Good bowling performances from Adrian Graham and Ryan Dallimore with three wickets each encouraged the home side, although Mott felt his side let Cowaramup off the hook.
“It was a good toss to win and I thought we should of bowled them out for less,” Mott said.
“They got away in the final overs with Adrian Woodward hitting Chris Reagan for three consecutive sixes, which didn’t help.”
Dunsborough commenced the run chase strongly with the top order all scoring freely on a fast outfield.
Cowaramup captain Ben Shephard said “Devyn Coote was the difference for them, his controlled aggression at the top of the order set up their win”.
The multiple premiership opener finishing with 36, Mott top scoring with 37runs. Mott said the side was looking forward to next week’s top of the table clash against local rivals Yobs.
“We’ll have a few changes for next week with Tim Jury and Josh Reagan to come in. It was good to have Chris Reagan back for his first game and he’ll benefit from the outing”.
In B grade, Busselton rivals Yobs and St Mary’s took to the Bovell hardwicket for their clash.
Yobs captain Tom Payne won the toss and elected to bat but felt his side did not bat well.
“We only managed 115 off our 45 overs and that was mainly due to Guy Allsop(25) and Jamie Trewren,” Payne said.
“Their openers Fraser Sanford(two wickets) and James Hunt(three wickets) bowled really well.”
Payne put his side’s low total down to a bad day and felt his side would be back to its best for its game this Saturday against Dunsborough.
St Mary’s captain Dave La Motte said it was great to register their first win for the season and hoped to carry the winning momentum into next week’s game against Vasse.
La Motte who topped scored with 43 and claimed the man of the match award was quick to play down his performance.
“We had a really good team win with many contributors”.
La Motte made special mention of off-spinner Kyle Coates(2/22 off nine overs) whose attitude typified the teams spirit.
St Mary’s won the game by five wickets in the 28th over claiming bonus points for the win.
In the other B grade game Dunsborough (10/204) accounted for Cowaramup (10/133) with the Vasse v Margaret River game abandoned due to rain.
In an early opening C grade game St Mary’s took on Augusta at Churchill Park with Augusta comfortably defeating the home side.
St Mary’s C grade Captain Shane Lilley lamented the slow bowling of the Augusta change bowlers.
“We started okay, but their slow bowlers really went through our middle order,” Lilley said.
Augusta eventually bowled out the local side(10/102) before achieving the target with seven wickets in hand.
St Mary’s take on Dunsborough in C grade next week at the newly refurbished Barnard Park hardwicket.
Lilley commenting “It will be great to get back to playing cricket by the water, we are extremely lucky to have such a great location to play out sport”.