West Gippsland Cricket Association A grade round 3

By Ian Ferguson
OFFICER staged a remarkable turnaround to send Catani plummeting to an outright loss on Saturday.
Staring defeat in the face when they started day two of round three, the Bullants went on to score 240 to see the Blues meekly surrender.
In other WGCA results Clyde snatched an exciting threerun victory against Pakenham UpperToomuc (PUT), Brad Miles’ stylish innings of 165 enabled Beaconsfield to overcome Devon Meadows, Pakenham won a tight encounter at Emerald and Cardinia and Tooradin easily disposed of Kooweerup and Merinda Park respectively.
Catani gambled it could prevail without the unavailable duo of Brad McDonald and Paul Govaars on day two against Officer, but this rash decision backfired badly on the Blues.
Officer tailenders rose magnificently to the formidable challenge and when their ninthwicket stand yielded another 100 runs, the sniff of outright victory permeated the Bullants’ colony.
The undermanned and deflated home side collapsed for only 105 in its second innings that delivered maximum points to the determined Officer team.
Kable Dowsett (4/11 from eight overs) and Daniel Savage (3/14 from seven overs) were the two Bullants who inflicted the most pain on the Blues’ camp and reliable all rounder Lionel Sexton, who scored 39, was the only Catani player who was not humbled.
PUT appeared to have control of the game against Clyde when it reached 4/117 at the tea interval.
However the persistent Cougar bowling attack kept clawing the Yabbie batsmen and when the visitor’s total reached 9/196 the Cougars had wrestled back the initiative.
A gallant lastwicket stand between Ben Keane and Matt Price brought PUT agonisingly close to Clyde’s total of 213, but the home side finally prevailed by just three runs.
Young Yabbie Chris Smith scored 71 (a fine innings that included 11 boundaries), while acting captain Jason Wingrove contributed 67.
Callum O’Hare performed tirelessly for Clyde, capturing 3/78 from his marathon spell of 30 overs, while Daniel Waite and the former Cranbourne Meadows player Clayton Blair both snared two victims.
Coach Noel O’Brien was pleased with his team’s excellent fielding. He accepted three vital catches while wicketkeeper Jarrod Leontini snapped up four and the Cougars are snarling confidently again after making a slow start to the season.
Beaconsfield’s Brad Miles celebrated his welcome return to the WGCA by scoring a sparkling 165 against Devon Meadows. His superb knock enabled the undefeated dual premiers to defeat their gritty opponents by 58 runs after they totalled an imposing 297.
Don Kerslake continued his consistent form by notching 45, while assistantcoach Jason Dodd remained 39 not out.
Devon Meadows was not disgraced in this contest and its mediumpace attack performed well.
Veteran Peter Zauner collected 4/67 from 22 overs, captain Travis Canavan got 3/63 from 13 overs, while Doug Louden captured 3/98 from 27 overs.
Pakenham gained a gritty 11run win at Emerald in a grinding lowscoring encounter.
The Lions made the matchwinning breakthrough when Rawan Weerawardana removed the Bomber’s key batsman Quenten Lucas for 25 and from that point the visitors maintained their control of the game.
Brodie Lucas scored a defiant 52 and opener Mark Alenson contributed 28, but Emerald’s middle and late order batsmen performed disappointingly and failed to match Pakenham’s moderate total of 190.
Weerawardana was the Lion’s matchwinner, claiming the excellent figures of 5/70 from 27 overs and reliable pace bowler Dale McCraw captured 3/41 from 21.2 overs.
Daryl Rooks was tidy in his work behind the stumps taking two catches and a neat stumping.
The Lions were written off before the season started by some pundits, but they’re purring at present after winning two of their first three fixtures.
Cardinia produced a solid all round batting performance when it easily disposed of Kooweerup by 113 runs.
Ben Da Rose made a welcome return to form and top scored with 58, Steve Paterson and captaincoach Mark Cooper added 47 and 43 respectively and Jamie Glen, Luke Turner and Dwayne Doig all contributed 20s when the Bulls charged to a 260run total.
Youthful Demon leg spinner Mathew Bright took the bowling honours for the visitors with his pleasing figures of 5/38 from 15.1 overs, while Mick Glasscock chipped in with 2/13 from seven overs.
Both teams have started the season well, but more will be revealed about their prospects this season after they complete testing roundfour assignments.
Merinda Park performed promisingly last week, but its batting disappointed on Saturday when it was dismissed for the lowly total of 116 at Tooradin.
Ageless veteran Brett Armitage celebrated a near halfcentury of birthdays by scoring a determined 49, but only three other Cobra batsmen reached double figures.
Sam Clarke was the dominant Seagull bowler with his commanding figures of 5/27 from 13.2 overs.
Tooradin made the most of the final 29 overs of play by blasting an undefeated opening partnership of 124, with Adam Baumgardner scoring a robust 78 not out.