By JARROD POTTER
CLYDE and Cranbourne Meadows have booked their places in the WGCA District finals after sweeping aside Lyndhurst Vikings and St Francis Xavier respectively.
The wickets would fall for Clyde (163) but the best Lyndhurst Vikings (137) efforts weren’t enough to halt the dashing Cougars. James Gilbert (3/33), Jesse Fitzgerald (2/35) and Heath Straughair (2/40) did the damage for the Vikings to leave the Cougars in disarray, once the Clyde skipper Kyle Brooke (16) fell to Straughair. It left a lot of work for the Cougars’ tail-end to burden, but Kane Avard (33 not out) and Nick Miles (30) taught the elder statesmen above them in the order, a thing or 63 about cashing in as the duo notched the match-winning partnership.
“We’ve probably had a mixed back end of the year, but since Christmas we’ve come through undefeated right through until now,” Brooke said.
“We’ve come together as a side really, really well and we’ve got some interesting selection decisions to make before next game.”
It only took 21 overs on Saturday for Cranbourne Meadows (8/204dec) to finish the job against St Francis Xavier (107) and begin their finals’ campaign as Shaun Matthews (7/21) proved lethal to any crease-bound X-Men. His 17-overs was more than enough to dish out the pain for St Francis Xavier as only Brendan Hunt (28) proved any match for Matthews. Geoff Bradshaw (3/25) was the other chief destroyer as he reaped three wickets across his 10.4 overs.
Clyde will host Cranbourne Meadows in one semi-final while Lyndhurst will face Officer in the other finals’ clash.
SUB-DISTRICT
A solo knock by Nathan Bownds (45) was the only bright light for Emerald (131), as it was engulfed by the minor premiers Tooradin (250). Undermining Emerald strike by strike, Tooradin’s spearheads Rick Holland (3/28) and Ash Adams (3/46) picked off any errant Bomber, but Bownds held strong under the pressure to post the best score by a country mile. Owen Johnstone (2/20) wrapped things up early as Tooradin marched onwards to their first semi-final clash against Catani.
A meagre tally would not be enough for Catani (143) to curtail Lang Lang (8/162). After the skipper’s gallant half century last week, the same could not be found from the Cats’ bowlers as the Swamp Tigers got away to an early flyer – Brian Christensen (56) and William Wykes (22).
Lang Lang will head to Pakenham this weekend.
