Cowaramup back in the game with win over Vasse

By Allan Miller
Updated January 18 2021 - 4:09pm, first published 12:09pm
Cowaramup Cricket Club's endeavours to re-enter the B-Grade competition proved fruitful on Saturday.
Cowaramup Cricket Club's endeavours to re-enter the B-Grade competition proved fruitful on Saturday.

FRIDAY night T20 cricket in the Busselton-Margaret River Cricket Association is here to stay, and Cowaramup Cricket Club are back on top.

The inaugural Friday night T20 games in the BMRCA last weekend saw St Marys and YOBS record hard-fought wins over Margaret River Hawks and Dunsborough respectively in the A-Grade competition, while the results were reversed in the B-Grade T20 competition, with Hawks beating Saints and Dunsborough getting up to topple YOBS.

Strong community support saw good attendances at Margaret River and Dunsborough, with artificial lighting adding to the atmosphere at Dunsborough for the post-game festivities.

Hawks were in with a chance of upsetting Saints in the A-Grade T20 fixture at Gloucester Park until a hard-hitting Chris McLean (43 runs) was caught on the boundary with 30 runs needed from the final three overs.

YOBS owed their A-Grade T20 win over Dunsborough to David MacLeay (39 not out), Ben Clarke (32) and Nayton Colombera (30 not out) combining to overtake Dunsborough's 20-over total of 128 with two overs remaining.

Cowaramup Cricket Club's endeavours to re-enter the B-Grade competition proved fruitful on Saturday, with strong performances by Mike Hibberd (32 runs), Ben Shepherd (30 not out) and Kavy de Silva (an unbeaten 66) setting up a T20 win over Vasse at the Cowaramup Oval.

The C-Grade T20 fixtures resulted in a range of interesting results among the eight games played.

In the first half of fixtures, Saints beat Cowaramup by just 2 runs in a thriller at Cowaramup, Busselton All Stars amassed 5-186 to beat Hawks by 63 runs at Barnard Park, Dunsborough were bowled out for 86 by Nannup but defending it by restricting Nannup to 7-61, and Vasse defeated YOBS in a high-scoring encounter at Dunsborough Playing Fields.

The highest individual score of the weekend was made by Dennis Amour, who smashed 84 from 34 balls for Vasse against YOBS, including 74 runs in boundaries (11 fours and 5 sixes).

Another performance worthy of mention in the same game was 13-year-old Aston Brooks' innings of 67 not out from 46 balls for YOBS, who mounted a creditable 7-142 in response to Vasse's total of 8- 164.

The second half of the C-Grade T20 games on Saturday saw Busselton All Stars beat St Marys on turf at Barnard Park, while Cowaramup beat Hawks on the synthetic wicket at Barnard, with young Matthew Burgess hitting 48 in the Bulls' winning effort.

At the Dunsborough Playing Fields, Dunsborough made light work of Vasse when they restricted to visitors to 6-81 and then overtook the total in just 9.3 overs for the loss of a single wicket, with Darcy Carroll (25), Geoff Pethick (21 not out) and Simon Smith (23 not out) doing all the damage.

YOBS had the better of Nannup in the remaining T20 game, despite Leigh Guthridge taking a rare five-wicket haul for the losers.

YOBS made 112, with Guthridge taking an excellent 5-15, and then restricted Nannup to 9-77.