By Joshua Hamilton
We turned our attention to the final home and away round of the season, which saw the 1st XI travel to Queens Park to tackle long-time Yarra Valley rival Healesville. The 2nd XI would face St Andrews for the first time ever at home and will face them in a big semi-final next week as well while the 3rd XI would host the 2nd placed Warrandyte and attempt to deny them a home final with victory.
Healesville 1st XI Vs Wandin 1st XI at Queens Park, Healesville:
Wandin won the toss and took the chasing approach by asking Healesville to bat first. Healesville made a very good start with their run rate up over 7 runs per over after 10 overs for the loss of only 1 wicket. Momentum would be the key but unfortunately for Wandin, it remained in favour of the opposition. Ryan Thompson was then able to affect a much-needed, precise run-out to give Wandin a bit of energy and belief that they could turn the innings around.
Healesville’s Ash Hamer and Max Minney found the boundary and scored at a fast rate to take their score to 4/246 with 4 overs to go. This allowed Healesville’s batters to play shots with a fair amount of freedom which saw them finish up at 5/285 from their allocated 40 overs.
Wandin needed a similar and ideally better start than the 1st innings to be within reach of surpassing the big target at hand. Much like the majority of the season, we would find ourselves a few wickets down for less than the ideal amount of runs but this wouldn’t deter Wandin from fighting the good fight to go from 6/34 to 7/100 when Bryce Edwards (25) was dismissed. In true Wandin fashion, the Doggies kept digging deep with Jordan Poynton (74), and Dave Thorne (23no) seeing the innings finish at 9/194.
From the dire position, we were in to find a ton of heart and add massive amounts of respect to the innings was fantastic. This draws the curtain on what has been a tough season playing in the RDCA premier grade Steve Pascoe Shield for the 1st XI.
Wandin 2nd XI Vs St Andrews 5th XI at Wandin North Reserve:
The ladder leading Wandin side would host St Andrews for the 1st ever competitive meeting between the two sides. St Andrews would win the first mini battle via the coin toss and elected to bat first on the lightning-quick Wandin deck. St Andrews made a conservative start to their batting innings as their first wicket fell at 1/39 when Mitchell Kogelman (1/14 from 7 overs) was duly rewarded for some extremely economical bowling spell with the first wicket.
Another wicket would fall shortly after on 48 runs when Miles Rayner (1/41) trapped their number three batter LBW. Hamish Lamont (1/25 off 7) would strike next when he removed a batter on 50 courtesy of a Lachie Riddiford catch. Lachie (1/23 off 5) would also chime in shortly after taking a catch by delivering the 4th wicket via LBW. Daniel Trembath (1/46 off 7) would join the wicket-taking action with yet another LBW dismissal. Before St Andrews knew it, their maximum amount of overs was completed and their team score was on a reasonable 5/166.
Wandin would change the usual opening partnership of Danny Alderman and Daryn Trembath by elevating Lachie Riddiford to open with Daryn. This change would work a treat as Lachie carved out a nice 42 off 32 balls while Daryn notched up yet another score in excess of 50 for the 2nd week running. Looking like an extremely key player come finals time is Daryn. Wandin was absolutely cruising towards the target with the score reading 0/74 after just 10 overs. St Andrews would see the back of both Lachie and Jamie Elliott but this would bring out big hitter Rod Aitken and he took the same approach to batting as Lachie did by scoring at better than a run a ball.
St Andrews wouldn’t take any more than 2 wickets as Daryn Trembath finished 53no and Rod Aitken 42no as Wandin reached 2/171 after just 25 overs to secure a very comprehensive 8 wicket win.
Congratulations to skipper Rick Painter and his troops as they have secured top spot and the minor premiership in G Grade after remaining unbeaten since round 1. Wandin will play St Andrews again at Wandin North again next week with much larger stakes in a do-or-die semi-final. This also serves as a call out to the greater local Wandin community to support the boys next Saturday by watching them tackle finals cricket.
Wandin 3rd XI Vs Warrandyte 7th XI at Wandin East Reserve:
While the 3rd XI has secured a finals berth and will tackle top-placed Mount Evelyn next week, the focus was solely on upsetting Warrandyte’s finals campaign as they were needing a victory to secure a home final for themselves. Skipper Pat Laws would win the toss and choose to bat first.
Luke Falkingham and Jason Kneebone were sent out to face the new ball. Both guys would make a positive start that included a 69 run opening stand after Jason was bowled for a solid 26. Shaun Doolan was elevated up the order to number three to help continue building on the foundation laid but when he was also bowled for a quick 7, the ever consistent Matty Owens strolled out to the crease to partner Luke. At the halfway point Wandin was 2/88 and getting ready to launch an attack in the 2nd half of the innings.
Luke Falkingham would notch up his first 50no for the club by raising the bat upon his retirement from the batting crease. Matty Owens would follow shortly after he was bowled for 13 as Warrandyte looked to halt the Wandin charge when they claimed the wicket of Pat Laws for 7. This saw Lachie Alderman and Josh Hamilton (11) combine for a run-a-ball partnership of 25 to see the score to 5/149 which then turned into 6/153. Advantage Warrandyte.
What Lachie Alderman served up next was the perfect counterattack as he ran hard between the wickets and found the boundary on 7 occasions to finish on another brilliant inning of 48no to lead Wandin to a very defendable 8/191.
We would take an early scalp when Jason Kneebone held onto a sharp catch in the gully off the bowling of Shaun Doolan to have Warrandyte 1/11. We would then strike with 2 further wickets with the score on 59 when Luke Falkingham sparked a run-out of their well-set opener on 21 and Lachie Alderman couldn’t be kept out of the game when he took a nice catch off Ben Vallence’s bowling. Rory Vallence would be the pick of the bowlers as he took 2/28.
Warrandyte produced some big shots and boundaries at the right time which ultimately saw them secure victory with 5 overs to go. The Wandin crew will now regather themselves and prepare for the massive final that lays ahead this coming Saturday in enemy territory.
