ST MARYS Cricket Club has won the prestigious Yates Shield for the minor premiership in A grade cricket for only the second time in the past 30 years.
In the closest finish in the 93-year history of the Yates Shield, St Marys finished the home-and-away season on 98 points, just one point ahead of YOBS.
Last Saturday’s washout of the final round of both qualifying games in the competition (Dunsborough v YOBS, and Cowaramup v St Marys) has left both Busselton teams on top of the table.
Saints and YOBS will meet each other in this Saturday’s second semi-final at Barnard Park for the right to go through to the grand final the following week.
This Saturday’s first semi-final will see Margaret River Hawks (who finished third on 82 points) battle with Dunsborough (fourth place on 44 points) in a sudden-death fight for the right to play in Sunday’s preliminary final.
This weekend will also mark the first time a second semi-final has been played at the Barnard Park cricket headquarters, with both Danny Hatton (St Marys captain) and Ben Payne (YOBS captain) keen to be the first to qualify for the grand final, and not to have to worry about the preliminary final on Sunday.
Saints are trying to break the longest drought in local A grade cricket history.
Saints have won 19 premierships in the 108-year history of the Busselton-Margaret River competition – easily more than any other club – but their last A grade flag was 35 years ago, back in 1983-84, under Brian Earl’s captaincy. If they can pull it off, it would be a dream result for Ben Mattock in his first year as St Marys president.
B grade
Despite the heavy rain last Saturday morning, one B vgrade game was played in the afternoon at the Vasse Playing Fields.
St Marys, which was sitting in fifth place and potentially missing the finals, had the blowers out on the ground and dried the synthetic wicket sufficiently to allow a 20-overs-a-side game to take place against Vasse.
Put into bat, Vasse totalled 5-92 from their 20 overs. St Marys then chased the runs down with eight balls to spare, with Mark Yarwood (33) and Anthony Balkin (25) setting the pace with a 53-run opening stand.
The result means St Marys have displaced Hawks from fourth place.
This Saturday’s B grade second semi-final will be played between YOBS and Vasse at Barnard Park synthetic for a grand final spot, while the sudden death first semi-final will be between Dunsborough and St Marys, on the turf wicket at Dunsborough.
The loser of YOBS v Vasse will play the winner of Dunsborough v St Marys in Sunday’s preliminary final.
Results St Marys 4-93 (18.4 overs) (M. Yarwood 33, A. Balkin 25, D. Ebert 2-7, S. Shepherd 2-16) b Vasse 5-92 (20 overs) (J. Albury 17, C. Cook 16, B. Crain 2-25).
YOBS v Dunsborough washed out.
Masters
In Masters cricket on Sunday, Cowaramup COCCS claimed the inaugural title of BMRCA Masters premiers when they defeated Dunsborough Ducks in a hard-fought grand final at Barnard Park.
Cowaramup claimed the title after bowling Dunsborough Ducks out just short of their target of 161.
Cowaramup started well making 105 off their first 15 overs before Dunsborough held them to five an over off the last 10 overs.
Dunsborough started well but consistently picked out men in the deep, losing wickets steadily. Cowaramup bowled a consistent length late in the game and put the Ducks under pressure to score quickly. The wickets tumbled to see Dunsborough all out.
The inaugural competition finishes on a high note with many new players joining with much anticipation towards 2019-20 season.
