ST Mary’s Tyntynder have reclaimed top spot on the SHDCA A Grade ladder after beating Wandella by six wickets in Saturday’s grand final rematch.
In an almost carbon copy of last year’s decider, the Bulldogs took all 10 Bombers wickets and restricted them to an attainable target, cruising to victory just four wickets down and with plenty of overs to spare.
The result ensured St Mary’s Tyntynder bounced back from their first loss of the season and dropped Wandella out of the top five, ahead of an all-important match against Woorinen.
Charlie King proved unstoppable with both bat and ball, taking 4/13 and later guiding the Bulldogs to victory with an unbeaten 25.
St Mary’s Tyntynder captain Nathaniel Holmes-Brown was pleased with the return to form ahead of a bye.
“We obviously needed to improve based off our results (against Nyah District) the week before,” Holmes-Brown said.
“Everyone played their role … our bowling group had a plan and we were able to execute it, which proved to be the difference I felt.
“We set pretty restrictive fields and bowled very conservative, which was a centrepiece of our game plan last year.
“Having Robin (Sebastian) back in the team was huge in for us, there aren’t too many guys who you can rely on to open the bowling and only go for under 20 runs in the competition.
“Charlie King bowled as well as he ever has in the A Grade and Rylan Barnes bowled really well, as did Hugh Thompson.
“All these young fellas who are getting their opportunity are playing their role and helping us get the results.”
Opting to bat first, Wandella soon found themselves in trouble, with both openers in the sheds with just seven runs on the board.
Samuel Copland followed not long after, before veterans Peter Moore (28) and Greg Dickson (12) started to rebuild the innings.
That all came to an end in the space of two overs, when Dom Violi claimed the wicket of Moore and King dismissed Dickson, to leave the home side reeling at 5/56.
King continued to run through the Wandella line-up, taking the next three wickets.
“We’ve always rated Charlie highly and he had a great season with the bat last year, but he’s always shown a lot of ability with the ball right from his first games in the A Grade,” Holmes-Brown said.
“I feel over these coming years, the more he matures, the better he’ll bowl and he’ll really take his game to another level.
“He had a good game and even last week against Nyah, he was pretty unlucky to go out how he did and probably should have made a few more runs than he did.
“The other one to impress me was ‘Bones’ (Connor Power) – he’s probably been our most consistent batter this season so far.
“He’s made starts in every game and I feel like he’s only one good innings away from taking his game to another level.”
Power had a team-high 28 runs, and combined with King for a 55-run fourth wicket partnership.
Peter Moore, Ryan Barnes and Ethan McKnight took one wicket each for Wandella.
