Yarrawonga Mulwala A Grade Lakers have consolidated top spot on the WDCA A Grade later after they travelled across to Wangaratta for day 2 of their clash against rivals Rovers United Bruck with a green and browning off wicket and slow outfield setting the scene for the Lakers run chase.
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Clarke and Moore returned to the crease after their 8 overs faced late on day 1.
RUB opened with spin and then returned to their paceman after just one over.
Moore batted patiently and anything on his legs was clipped away beautifully to the boundary.
Clarke was also patient then faced a back of a length delivery and was caught behind off the keepers’ gloves to second slip. Lakers 1/13.
Enter Matt Casey.
Casey played technically and straight in the beginning, building a platform for his innings.
Moore at the other end started to find more runs often and got the score moving as the day got warmer and the pitch flattened out.
Moore copped a straighter delivery to the groin and needed a brief time out. Moore got going again and then got caught behind going for a pull shot.
A valuable 28, Lakers 2/61.
Matt Knight came to the crease and defended a beamer first ball.
Knight played straight early and then went aerial through gully and backward square towards the boundary in the long grass.
Casey joined the party and went aerial through the gully too before he elegantly lofted RUB’s spin down the ground on a few occasions.
The Lakers reached the tea break needing just 2 runs for victory.
After the boys, ‘Juddy’ Archibald and ‘PigDog’ demolished arvo tea - it was straight back to business.
Casey returned with a boundary in the first over. Carefully curating 50 runs and looked ominous.
Knight ticked the score over and was then out LBW for a fine 32. Lakers 3/144.
Brock McCabe joined Casey at the crease and they continued to tick the scoreboard over late in to the day.
Brock was bowled for 7 and the Lakers 4-157.
Adam Dodd returned to the crease for the first time since Christmas and attacked early with a beautiful straight drive down the ground.
Casey went through the gears and constructed his innings perfectly to pile on the runs.
Casey neared his hundred with big boundaries including a hook shot for six.
Then, with a delicate push through the covers Casey bought up his ton off 194 deliveries.
The knock included ten fours and two sixes and was applauded by the team, supporters and his proud father Martin.
Casey went big after his ton and was caught out for 101 on the fence.
Ben McDonald came to the crease in the final 8 overs of the day and spent valuable time in the middle with Dodd who smacked another four over square leg before he was bowled for 9 a couple of overs later. Lakers 6/182.
Captain coach Kyle Archibald joined McDonald in the middle for the last few overs with each batsman remaining not out for a final total of 6/183.
Overall it was a complete team performance from the Lakers with the bowlers doing the job on day 1 and the batsman on day 2 digging in to chase the runs and get valuable time in the middle.
Casey became the fourth A Grade Laker to score a hundred this year. Knight against Benalla, Clarke against Delatite, Wheeler against City Colts and now Casey against RUB.
Thank you to Hicksy for scoring yet again and the support in person and via Frogbox live streaming which caught all the action.
See you next week as the Lakers host Ovens Valley United at Stan Hargreaves Oval - 1pm this Saturday.
A Res maintain top four position
A reserve travelled to Wangaratta to defend their big score of 220 that they made on day 1.
Captain Andrew Dishot called on Fraser Smart to open the bowling and take early wickets.
Smart’s first three balls were all sixes. One back over his head, one over the grandstand and the other ramped over the keeper.
‘Tasty’ Collins-Bye’s chuckled at first slip and encouraged Smart to pitch the ball up.
To Smart’s credit, he returned to bowl 3 dot balls to see out the over.
Birthday boy Bailey Frauenfelder bowled a mixture of seam and doosra’s to attempt to fool the batsmen.
Eventually, a knuckleball removed the Colts opening batsman and Brendan Hill removed the other caught Hunter Frauenfelder.
Captain Dishot stroked his beard rapidly between balls and soon got a quick LBW.
From then on, Dishot and Aneeque Azam took control of the game.
Dishot’s left arm swingers were proving difficult. Dishot rolled his wrist to produce a hooping leg cutter that removed middle stump of Colts number 4 batsman.
The stump cartwheeled end on end much to ‘Tasty’s’ liking.
With partnerships building ‘Big Tasty’ Collins-Bye encouraged his bowlers all day from the cordon.
Eventually, Azam’s leg spinners became too much for Colts and three quick wickets fell to tear the game wide open.
Some big hitting at the end saw Colts reach 150 before Van Kreeck, Dishot and Bailey Frauenfelder cleaned up the tail.
Colts 10/164 and the A Reserve Lakers maintain their top four position with two games left.
B Grade assert dominance
Yarrawonga Mulwala 7/200 def Wangaratta Magpies 10/59.
The B grade boys smashed 200 runs against Wang Magpies.
The return of Tom Draffin saw him open the batting and score 34.
While Buerckner scored 33 and G Montgomery 34. Giblett scored a valuable 20 while Lach Phillips smashed 5 fours on his way to top score with 36.
Big Al Reilly whacked a four and a six to cap the innings 7/200.
Jack Connell opened the bowling and took a hattrick in the first over of the match.
Xav Mitchell bowled heat from the other end to have the batsman jumping. Xav snagged two wickets while Lach Phillips also chimed in with two wickets.
Big Al Reilly fresh from his massive boundaries took no prisoners removing four of the Magpies batsman in quick succession.
Big Al finished with 4/19 off just four overs.
TJ Docking was noisy in the field always encouraging his teammates and pulling Big Al’s wobble head into line - reminding him of last week’s bowling spell.
Overall, the Lakers took all 10 wickets and magpies only managed 59 runs.
B Grade sit 4th on the ladder with a few games to go.
C Grade keep finals hopes alive
Yarrawonga Mulwala 5/199 def Greta 8/124.
A more senior C Grade side took on top of the table Greta on arguably the second best deck in the WDCA (Stan H 1 the best).
Captain Pickles won the toss and chose to bat. Sending in ‘Fingers’ Bozzola in his first game back after a small accident and young gun P Brear.
Brear and Bozzola put on a majestic 63 run partnership before Brear 22 was bowled leg stump.
This brought out Lappin whom looked very different without his headband holding up the bowler on 1 occasion to wipe the sweat from his brow.
Lappin was 0 runs off 21 balls before finding his first runs a 4 through point. ‘Fingers’ went on to make a great 42 before being bowled.
This brought the leading run scorer and red ink specialist Sullivan to join Lappin whom had now pushed his score up to 19 before his fall of wicket.
In came ‘Chrome Dome’ Pickering who along with Sullivan pushed the score up around the high 190s before Sullivan 41 was finally out for the first time since October 23.
‘Blocka’ Wilson came in for a blistering single on his C grade debut with Pickering finishing on 45 n/o and ‘Blocka’ 1 n/o.
Lakers posting a very competitive 199 off their allotted 36 overs.
‘Fingers’ Bozzola and the ‘Telstra Dome’ Pickering opened the bowling sending down some proper heat.
‘Telstra Dome’ picking up a bowled in his first over. The first change of bowling was ‘J Train’ Burns who was handed the red cherry.
The boys at game traffic management were out into action running the stop/go sign on Dunlop street along with the local SES ready to tarp any roofs damaged by flying cricket balls.
Holding down the other end was veteran Laker Ted Graham. Local law enforcement vehicles pulled into the car park to get a look.
Meanwhile ‘Fingers’ Bozzola got jumpy and scooted off to who knows where and young Lucas ‘Rackemann’ Pickering took to the field.
It wasn’t long before the wickets started to fall and the sirens started to sound. Game traffic had packed up early with ‘J Train’ and Ted taking a couple of wickets each.
Hawk bowled a great spell with not much help from behind the stumps but we’ll talk about this later in the year.
Sullivan and Hawk chipped in for a few great overs in the middle of the Greta innings.
Some great fielding and a super catch from Brear allowed the Lakers to restrict the number 1 side to 9 for 106 off their 36 overs.
The Lakers now head off to Gapstead in their quest to play finals cricket. Arvo tea was another ripper, well done everyone.
Under 16s
Benalla Bushrangers 4/236 def Yarrawonga Mulwala 6/180
This week the Under 16s Lakers knew they had to bat strong to chase down such a large total.
Archie Colvin and Van Kreeck opened the innings and put on 32 in the first 10 overs before Archer was bowled for 17. Eales joined Kreeck soon after and their partnership saw the Lakers through to the 33rd over and added 85 to the total before Eales was bowled for 37.
Kreeck’s controlled innings anchors the Lakers and he was out for 69 in the 37th over.
Gus Saunders added a quick 18, Nate Sheridan contributed 10, Lucas Tonna was not out 6 and Mitch Francis was not out 5.
Yarrawonga finished up 6/180 at the end of their innings.
Awards - ClubMulwala - Van Kreeck (great patient knock). ClubMulwala - Lucas Eales (great supporting partnership). Gelatino Rutherglen - Mitch Francis (bowled awesome both ends).
Under 14s claim victory
Yarrawonga Mulwala 10/69 def Beechworth Wanderers 10/53.
The under 14s won a close match against Beechworth. Yarra Mul posting 69 runs with D Hargreaves top scoring with 15, Levi Purtle with 14 and Wally Hammon 9.
Jack Browning and Lucas ‘Rackemann’ Pickering took 2 wickets each while Taylor, Obrien, Purtle, M Smith and Taj Parker took one each.
Groundhog day at girls’ cricket
As the Lakers’ girls resumed matches in the WDCA All-Girls Cricket League for the first time in 2024, there were some freaky coincidences at play after both teams completed their innings.
The Lakers’ girls hosted Rovers United Bruck (RUBCC) on the return leg of the home and away fixture.
Captain Kirsty Plevnik was the beneficiary of an incorrect call at the toss by the opposition and wasted no time in electing to bat first on lawn bowls like Victoria Park number 2 oval.
Charlotte Arnold and Stella Hill strode to the crease with confidence and combined for a run-a-ball 12 for their allocation of overs, getting the team off on the right foot.
The runs continued to flow with Paige Bamford partnering with Grace Arnold for a contribution of 14 for the second wicket and thus doing so placed the Lakers in a strong position.
With the foundations set, it was now left for Heeranya Mahajan and Rosie Lidgerwood to accelerate the run rate, which they did in sparkling fashion.
A swift 16 was clocked up and the score moved along to 42. Elise Lidgerwood and Matilda Thackray eased the ball around, taking extra care to defend their wicket and presented no chances to the determined opposition.
It was just the type of action required to quell the momentum being constructed.
With the overs being clicked off, it was time to move things along and Bella Ward and Kirsty Plevnik did just that.
16 valuable runs amounted from their pairing at the crease and the team total climbed to 58 when they left the field.
The batting of Kate Giblett and Lily Lewis skyrocketed the score into the atmosphere. Kate only dealing in boundaries (4 x fours from seven deliveries) was super and Lily adding great support with a run a ball 6 runs.
The batting innings of the locals closed on 86 runs for the loss of eight wickets, which can prove costly in this format.
This time with ball in hand and the team in the field, the Lakers had to keep the runs down, while looking to get wickets.
A good plan no matter what level of cricket is being played. To their absolute credit, the Lakers’ girls delivered in spades when the pressure was on.
Wicket takers were Elsie Lidgerwood with two, and singles to Kate Giblett, Bella Ward and Grace Arnold.
Miserly overs belonged to Ward (2 runs), Grace Arnold (3 runs), Rosie Lidgerwood and Paige Bamford (both 4 runs conceded).
But faced with bowling the last over with 6 runs required by the visitors for victory, Charlotte Arnold stepped up and held her nerve to only allow 5 runs to be taken from her spell.
In doing so she was awarded the Coach’s Award for her efforts.
So, amazingly, in a repeat of the very first match, which was also against the same opposition, RUBCC, both teams tied the result of the game with “I’ve got you babe” playing in the background. The Lakers girls have now played four matches for one win, one loss and two ties.
The girls are now look to hosting Benalla at home on Friday, February 23 and aim to turn the tables this time around.
Under 12s Bulls win in final overs
Benalla Bushrangers 7/99 def by Yarrawonga Mulwala 7/111.
The bulls posted 111 runs and restricted Benalla to 99 runs with just a couple of balls remaining in the match.
Benji Wollington top scored in the middle order and steered innings with 26 valuable runs.
While Finn Obrien scored 18. Cameos from Isaac McClarty and Hudson Hall ran up the total.
Murphy Doyle was the destroyer for the Lakers taking a hat trick! Other wickets were shared across the team.
Under 12 Rams
City Colts forfeit - Rams 5th on the ladder.
Special mention
A big happy 50th birthday to YMCC’s very own Justin ‘Juggy’ O’Brien who celebrated the milestone over the weekend.
‘Juggy’ is a valued stalwart of the club who continues to play the great game in the A reserve team.
‘Juggy’ also maintains and curates the wicket at Lonsdale Reserve Mulwala which was revamped over the Christmas break.
A life member and major contributor to the YMCC
The club all hope you had a great birthday and a big thank you for the years of effort at both the YMCC and Y&DCA.
50 not out ‘Juggy’, raise the bat.
Yarrawonga Chronicle