RSL and Nyah District both picked up their first points for the season on Saturday – albeit not in the manner that either side were hoping for.
The long-time rivals playing out a heart-stopping tie at the weekend.
Batting first, the Demons were bowled out for 111 after 37 overs – a total that would ultimately prove difficult for the Blues to run down on the slow Gurnett Oval pitch and outfield.
Nyah District got off to a steady start as youngsters Charlie Boulton and Mitch Grinham put on a 20-run opening stand, before Boulton departed for just 12.
Stand-in captain Joel Walsh went shortly after, dismissed by Brenton Caldwell for his second consecutive duck.
Grinham (19), Dean Harrop (15) and top scorer Toby O’Grady (33) then went about resurrecting the innings.
Some tight bowling from Charlie Kingwill (2/22), Cameron Cook (2/24) and Caldwell (4/22) ended any hopes of a 130-plus score however, with the Demons losing their last five wickets for just 16 runs.
RSL’s reply got off to a shaky start, with experienced duo Ryan Hinton and Stuart Patterson both dismissed by a fired-up Walsh in the second over, before RSL captain Ben Hallam and Oscar Hier steadied the ship with a 45-run partnership.
Caldwell then joined Hallam after Hier edged one through to Justin Toomey off the bowling of Boulton, with the RSL veteran playing the support role for Hallam, who was looking like being the match winner.
The pair pushed the score along to 78 before Caldwell also fell off the bowling of Boulton.
It wasn’t until Walsh returned to the attack and drew a return catch from Hallam that the match changed complexion.
Even though RSL needed just 13 runs from almost as many overs, the Demons seized their opportunity, tightening up with the ball and making the young and inexperienced RSL batting line-up earn every run.
Nyah District continued to take wickets at regular intervals – until RSL’s final partnership of Billy O’Meara and Stuart McGregor were at the crease, with the Blues needing just three runs for victory in the final overs.
Unfortunately for the home side, they could manage only two of them, when Toby O’Grady trapped McGregor in front on the second last ball of the innings to see RSL dismissed for 111 – leaving the two teams unable to be separated.
Nyah District’s Walsh spoke with The Guardian following the result and although disappointed not to get the full six points, was still full of praise for how his team went about it.
“It was another one of those typical games that we always seem to have with RSL – every time we meet it’s a tight contest and Saturday was no different,” Walsh said.
“We took a bit of confidence from it in the end – putting on 111 on the board was not a great score, but I felt the way we grinded the game out and bowled extremely well, especially late in the game, will give us a bit of confidence.
“I thought everyone who bowled did a tremendous job and I think we just held our nerve and held our composure and kept bowling nice and full at the death and let them make the mistakes trying to chase those final runs they needed – although it wasn’t a win, there’s still a lot of positives for us to take out of it moving forward.”
In a low scoring contest at the Showgrounds, St Mary’s Tyntynder young gun Charlie King put in a performance to remember as the Saints defended a meagre total of 109, rolling Swan Hill for 74.
King finished with figures of 5/12 to remind everyone why he was one of the rising stars of the competition.
The defence of such a low score proved why the Saints were one of the teams to fear, with their bowling and fielding discipline strangling the Swans.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom for Swan Hill though, with their improvement shining through in a quality bowling display earlier in the day.
The Swans made the risky decision to bowl first, but it proved fruitful as spinner Ian Schodde tore through the Saints’ top order, taking the wickets of Jack Shannahan, Austin McKerrow and Corey Daniels in his opening spell to leave the St Mary’s-Tyntynder at 4/35 early on.
While Swan Hill continued to take wickets at regular intervals, the turning point came when Andrew Clark overstepped on the same ball he had Bailey Codling caught at gully.
Codling added another 35 runs after the no-ball and top-scored with 45 not out, giving St Mary’s Tyntynder a defendable total.
Schodde finished with five wickets of his own, while Clark took 3/18 from six overs, with the pair looking like they have matured as bowlers going by early season form.
As expected, the Saints came out firing with the ball, with skipper Nathaniel Holmes-Brown trapping Jake Hatcher on the crease for a duck before removing the in-form Lachlan Edwards (1) to leave Swan Hill at 2/4.
Swans leaders Callan Noonan (17 off 68) and Nathan Spicer (18 off 74) attempted a slow rebuild – and it appeared to be working, until King dismissed the pair in quick succession at the crucial moment the co-captains would have liked to shift gears.
The wickets instigated a familiar collapse, with the Swans losing 5/5 in a middle order that was missing the key cogs of Alan Hatcher and Sebastian Linssen.
It was game over from that point, with Holmes-Brown finishing with figures of 2/14 off eight overs and Shannahan the economic figures of 0/13.
The final game scheduled for the weekend between Wandella and Woorinen turned out to be an anti-climax, with the match unable to take place due to the flood situation in Kerang – with the match points shared between the two teams.
MATCH RESULTS
Nyah District 111 off 37 overs (Toby O’Grady 33, Brenton Caldwell 4/22, Charlie Kingwill 2/22, Cameron Cook 2/24) drew with RSL 111 off 39.5 overs (Ben Hallam 57, Joel Walsh 3/11, Charlie Boulton 3/29, Toby O’Grady 2/6).
St.Mary’s Tyntynder 109 off 25 overs (Bailey Codling 45*, Ian Schodde 5/36, Andrew Clark 3/18) def. Swan Hill 74 off 40 overs (Charlie King 5/12, Jared Halligan 2/2, Nathaniel Holmes-Brown 2/14).
Wandella drew with Woorinen (match abandoned)
