IONA’S finals chances in A grade may have been ended after a devastating loss to Western Park.
A GRADE
Iona won the toss and elected to bat, but from there everything went wrong.
Byrnes fell early and Iona looked to reconsolidate through Will Grbic and Andrew Davidson, but when Davidson fell for 14 when the score was 34 Iona then lost 5/8 to be 6/42.
Grbic top-scored with 21 but it was thanks to Mick Jusic (19), Glen Bawden (13) and M. Neilson (12) that Iona was able to reach 90.
The chase was no problem for Western Park, which passed Iona total with only three wickets down and finished the day 6/207. R. Breeden (57) and W. Rhodes (37) were best of the batsmen and none of the Iona bowlers picked up more than one wicket.
B GRADE
In a close contest Iona batted first but lost two early wickets before Russell Ferguson and Bob Rogers consolidated with a steady partnership of 51. Ferguson fell for 29.
Rogers continued to bat solidly, falling for 30, and Oscar Braaksma hit a quick-fire 31. But from 2/102 Iona collapsed to be all out for 119, Brian Campbell (14) being the only lower-order player to offer any resistance.
A.McGrath was the main destroyer with 6/19 in a superb display.
Western Park started solidly, S.Laffy (14) being first out at 46. Fellow opener P. Fennell was next to go for 38. But P.Jeffery (44) stood up for Western Park, lifting the run rate before being Braaksma’s third victim. But Western Park crawled over the line, finishing 6/124 from 40 overs.
C GRADE
Iona moved back to second spot with a win over Ellinbank at the weekend.
After winning the toss, Iona captain Nathan Vistarini elected to bowl first.
Iona started well, Vistarini picking up a couple of early wickets.
Runs weren’t flowing easily for Ellinbank until S. Notman came to the crease and with R. McGuiness established a decent partnership.
The Ellinbank introduced Phil Grant into the attack to remove both Notman (35) and McGuiness.
Grant’s magic continued and he rattled the middle to lower order, finishing with 6/29. Ross Donoghue came back on, picking up the two final wickets in succession to dismiss Ellinbank for 108.
When Iona batted Vistarini was the first to go for 18. Iona continued to build small partnerships but opener Tom McCormack stayed resolute while P. Felstead ripped through Iona’s middle to lower order, taking 5/22. But it wasn’t enough for Ellinbank as Iona scraped past the target with two wickets in hand. McCormack later brought up his half-century and finished with 52 unbeaten runs in what proved to be the matchwinning effort. Iona was all out 123.
