Pups coach Ryan Majstrovic stood as umpire at both ends.
“Lukas bowled a menacing line at good pace from around the wicket, cramping up the Dragons batsmen,” said Bay men’s senior selector Majstrovic, who was also impressed by Taye McGuiness (1-17 off five overs) with the ball and Jakob Brown’s resilience with the bat (two runs off 32 balls) for the Dragons.
Dragons captain Theo Mackay won the toss and elected to bowl. They restricted the Pups — who posted 205-7 in Round 7 against Gisborne Girls’ High School — to 162-7 in 30 overs of the nine-a-side match.
Opening bowler Nathaniel Fearnley (1-18 off five) set the tone, his fellow seamer Bekko Page (3-24 off four) also doing well.
Pups wicketkeeper-batsman Jack Whitehead-McKay (47 off 46 balls) at No.3 and second-drop Rhys Grogan (25 from 17) led all other run-scorers in the first innings.
Overs 2, 4 and 6 from Fry crippled the Dragons: only opening batsman Fearnley, with 33 retired off 34 balls, got to double-figures. The next highest individual score was nine runs by ’keeper Izahn Duckworth, in at No.9, as the Dragons were dismissed for 74 in 17 overs.
The Mel Knight-coached Girls’ High team beat the Bollywood HSOB Stars by 60 runs to win the playoff for third.
Girls’ High captain Kayley Knight won the toss and hit five boundaries in her run-a-ball 32 from No.5. Opener Alyssah Swann and No.8 Isabelle Evans scored 23 runs apiece, in the Girls’ High total of 156-6.
The Stars were dismissed for 96 in 19.3 overs. Their captain, first-drop Liam Barbier, made 27 not out at a run a ball with four boundaries, and was his team’s MVP.
Swann (3-18 off five overs) and Kayley Knight (2-9 off 3.3 overs) led the way in defence of a much smaller total than the 257 Girls’ High had posted the previous Saturday.
Mel Knight was proud of her crew’s season-long effort: “The girls showed that the more cricket they play, the better they get. They all improved and contributed at different times. We weren’t a one-player team; we were able to change our batting order, and give everyone a bowl in most games.”
The fewer men, the greater share of honour . . . as the playoff for fifth between the Auto Tyre Eagles and the Eastland Broncos proved.
The Eagles had eight players to the Broncos’ five. Eagles all-rounder and captain Noah Torrance-Cribb won the toss, batted second-drop and made 24 from 24 balls. Nuggety left-hander Jarrod Ormiston top-scored with 29 from No.5 in the Eagles’ total of 76-4 in 12.4 overs.
Broncos off-spinner and captain George Gillies took 2-2 off two overs, aided and abetted by seamers Tom Rouse (1-10 off two) and Ben Langford.
“Ben was our MVP,” Gillies said.
“He bowled well (0-9 off two) and picked the run-rate up for us when he batted, with two fours in his 11 runs off 15 balls, coming at No.5. Ben’s had a solid season and improved in every game.”
The Eagles then dismissed the Broncos for 65 in 14 overs to win by 11 runs.
Gillies opened the batting and hit five fours in a 21-ball innings of 30.
Tama Wirepa (2-9 off two overs) and Torrance-Cribb (2-22 off two) rose to the occasion, keeping the ball up to the bat, holding catches for other bowlers and effecting run-outs: as when Torrance-Cribb ran out Broncos opener Rouse for 12.
