WITH only three rounds remaining in the Busselton Margaret River Cricket Association season, last Saturday’s results confirmed the top two positions in A-grade.
Despite a bye, ladder leaders Yobs, and second placed Dunsborough, have established a large enough gap for the the two clubs to finish first and second.
The clubs are set to play in the final round of the season which will decide the minor premiership, while St Mary’s has locked in third position following a strong win over Margaret River last Saturday.
The race still goes on for fourth position and is likely to come down to the final game of the season when Margaret River take on Cowaramup.
The race for the B-grade finals also intensified with Yobs keeping their slim chances of a finals campaign alive with a strong win over second-placed Vasse.
Yobs will need to win all of its remaining games this season and rely on other results to go their way in order to play finals.
In C-grade, strong wins to Augusta and Nannup will have them finish as the top two, while the final two positions are tight. Margaret River registered an important win over St Mary’s when it jumped into fourth position, just above its Busselton rivals.
In A-grade Dunsborough travelled to Cowaramup and on wining the toss, Cowaramup captain Ben Shepherd elected to bowl on a wicket that had experienced rain overnight.
This proved to be a good move with the wicket playing part in several early dismissals and with Dunsborough 5/96 at drinks the game was in the balance. After drinks, several contributions by Dunsborough’s lower order resulted in the visitors posting a target of 209.
Young Cowaramup bowler Sam Berridge was the pick of the bowlers returning 4/39 off his 10 overs with Dunsborough’s Ray Pes (39), Chris Dudley (36) and Tim Jury (21 no) top scoring for the visitors.
In reply, a man of the match performance by Tim Jury (5/26) had the visitors dismissing Cowaramup for 93, with Shepherd (24) the only batsman to get a start.
A one-handed diving catch by Adrian Graham fielding in the gully was described by some at the game as the catch of the season. Graham had earlier bowled a tight opening spell (0/9 off eight overs) which help set up the win.
Dunsborough captain Aaron Mott was happy with his side’s ability to win while resting strike bowlers Ray Pes and Nathan Whitney who were recovering from injury.
“We have a few guys with niggles and so it was great to give these guys a day off from bowling,” Mott said. “Next week is a bye for us which will also help us be in good shape for finals.”
Mott also felt Yobs were the side to beat this year and his experienced side was well placed to take on Yobs in March. This Saturday Yobs take on Margaret River, while Cowaramup will look to post a win against St Mary’s.
