The Bottle-O Albion Eagles where out at Brooklands for the 50 over final against NEV – looking to add this trophy to the T20 title they won a few weeks ago.
After looking at the track skipper Taylor Cumberland was keen for a bat – however the toss was lost and we found ourselves in the field.
Mason Clarke and Patrick Arnold took the new ball and Mason was immediately right on line and bowled beautifully to take four quite wickets and when Patrick also had a wicket NEV were in trouble at 40/5. Gordy Chatfield came into the attack and it was quickly 45/6. Mason bowled his 10 on the bounce and secured his 5th wicket to finish with 5/40 as Valley crumbled further to 61/7. Gordy claimed a second and when James Brown took the 9th wicket Valley were 92/9. At this point the boys went to sleep a little and NEV really rallied and it was not until Josh Olliver came into the attack and secured the final wicket with his first ball and Valley had reached 160 – quite a few more than they should have.
Hugo Bogue came out strongly but two ducks at the other end had the Eagles at 13/3 and when Hugo was out for 39 the score sat at 46/3. Josh (10) and ollie Ritchie (13) got starts but then fell to leave the Eagles in a tricky position at 77/5. Quinn Sunde, under an injury cloud, had come to the wicket and was keeping the scoreboard ticketing over but we keep losing wickets at the other end and found ourselves at 101/8. Quinn was batting nicely and was receiving good support from James but with the score at 138 missed a delivery and was bowled for 54. Larry Vimukthi joined James with still another 23 required. With another 14 overs there was no run rate pressure so they both batted sensibly just picking up a single or two when on offer until the score reached 159 when James guided a wider delivery to the vacant third man to secure an excellent victory.
So, a great way to finish the season – second in the Bing Harris and securing both the T20 and 50 over trophies.
At Culling the Kilda lads were looking to win four titles in a row – up against the Cavaliers. Skipper Scotty McCormack was keen on a bat and even though he lost the toss the Cavs obliged by sending the Kilda in first.
Dan Duke and Chris Morris opened up with Morrie just looking on (again) as Dan clubbed his way to 131 off just 59 balls that included 6 four’s and 13 six’s and the first wicket partnership amassed 172. Scott Chapman joined Chris and together they put on a further century stand before Scotty was undone with his score at 42. Mark Somerville came and went for 17 before Shaun Wheeler joined Chris and together, they took the score to an imposing 375 when the 40 overs were completed – Shaun with a quickfire 32* and Chris had kept his foot down after Dukey departed and finished on 128* off 115 balls.
Kieran Parker took the new ball and quickly had a wicket to have the Cavs at 21/1. At the other end. Craig Dougherty had bowled steadily from the other end without reward. It was Devin Stapley who came into the attack and took the second wicket in his first over. Then in the 10th over Kieran had his second and the Cavs where 56/3. Devin struck again in the 13th over. Craig swung around to the other end and had success in his first over back. A run out in the 17th over before Craig struck again in his next over and the Cavs were struggling at 99/7. Things wrapped up fairly quickly as veteran Darryl Strinnger claimed a wicket and then Club President Mike Sumner had the honour of taking the last Cavaliers wicket to end their inning at 130.
So, a fourth title in a row to the Kilda lads.
That is another season done and dusted – look forward to the start of the 2026_27 season in November – hope everyone winters well.