Juniors claim T20 trophies

By Chris Anderson
THE first silverware of season 2011/12 has been handed out after the YVCA Juniors played off in their Twenty20 grand finals on Sunday, 20 November.
At Gruyere, the Under 12 players strutted their stuff and it was the Mt Evelyn team who were successful in the U12B final in a close fought match against Coldstream. Coldstream batted first and posted a handy score of 4/52 on the back of innings from Daniel Vaux and Aidan Creedy who scored 8. Brad Westaway (2/6) was the pick of the bowlers for Mt Evelyn. The game was always poised for a close finish as Mt Evelyn built their innings steadily, but was contained by some good bowling by the Crocs, in particular Aidan Creedy (1/4) and Michaella Kincaid (1/17). The Rovers ended up victorious with an over to spare on the back of a steady team performance with the bat.
Following that match, Warburton-Millgrove were successful against Yarra Glen in the U12B final. After restricting the Burras to 6/49, Yarra Glen were no match for the bowling of Angus Nelson who took 3/1 including a hatrick. Yarra Glen were never in the hunt after that and could only muster 20 runs.
The remaining finals were played at Yarra Junction and it was Coldstream who kicked things off with a fine victory in the U14B final against Yarra Junction/Launching Place. Yarra Junction/Launching Place batted first and worked hard to post 9/71. Their cause wasn’t helped by a brilliant over by Cieren Flynne who netted four wickets without conceding a run as he was ably assisted by Brendan Creedy with figures of ¾. The Crocs’ chase was led by Darcy Fritsch with a fine 39 not out as they made the runs with 6 wickets in hand. Jack Jenkinson was the pick of the players for Yarra Junction/Launching Place taking 1/19 with the ball and making 9 with the bat whilst Jesse Cook (2/2) and Steven Grindley (1/14) also bowled well for the Runners Up.
The U14A final had a familiar feel to it as Healesville Red battled it out against Healesville. Healesville posted a reasonable score of 8/82 on the back of a fine innings from Dillon Kerr (23), but the Reds were too strong on the back of fine innings from James Edmonds (37) and Liam Daly (32) and cruised to the total with only the loss of one wicket.
Healesville capped off a memorable day for the club as they took out the U16 Twenty20 premiership. Yarra Junction battled manfully to post a score of 7/96 on the back of Matt Robinson’s 19, but they were blown away by a dominant Healesville side that scored 102 in the space of 12 overs without the loss of a wicket. The partnership between Brad Coon (51) and Jarrod Darkin (37) was certainly the highlight of the day as the Yarra Junction bowlers had no answers.
Congratulations must be given to all the teams, players, officials and supporters, for their efforts in making it a memorable day for all of our junior cricketers.
The rain on Saturday left many cricketers across the Valley crossing their fingers for finer weather on Sunday with YVCA representative games to be played. The U14, U16 and U18 teams were due to play off in Region 8 games against Mornington Peninsula Cricket Association, whilst in a watershed event for cricket in the Outer East Region, an Under 17 Girls team from the YVCA were victorious in the first Outer East All Girls Challenge.
The Yarra Valley girls won the Outer East shield, finishing ahead of FTGCA and RDCA by four runs, and coming in second overall.
Around 50 talented female cricketers took part in the competition representing the Ringwood, Yarra Valley, Ferntree Gully and Diamond Valley district cricket associations.
The four teams competed in three matches across the day, consisting of ten overs in each innings.
The day provided young female cricketers from different clubs across the region the opportunity to come together and represent their association in one team.
As female cricket continues to grow in Victoria, Sunday’s successful competition could see the competition grow in years to come.
The team representing the YVCA for the first time included; Emma Corken © (Healesville), Shannon Maile (Healesville), Rachael Spackman (Healesville), Caitlyn Parker (Launching Place), Michaella Kincaid (Coldstream), Shannon Tucker (Healesville), Hailey Chandler (Healesville), Emily McKay (Healesville), Caitlin Sharp (Coldstream), Alison Kincaid (Coldstream) and Georgia Parker (Launching Place).