By Callum Ludwig
Launching Place’s women’s side are the RDCA Women’s East A Grade premiers after defeating Bayswater Park in a 59 run victory on Sunday 13 March.
Launching Place lost the toss and was sent in to bat by Baywater Park in less-than-ideal batting conditions.
Launching Place Cricket Club committee member Leah Parker, who scored the game, said it was a great display of cricket from the team.
“It was pretty tough going for the batters. Setting a target of 114 is not a super high target for women’s cricket,” she said.
“Then Caitlyn Parker came in to bat at number four and she batted out the rest of the innings and ended up on a very important 47.”
Launching Place finished fourth with 34 points in the regular season, whilst Bayswater Park had finished second with 50.
Launching Place finished 4/113, and now had to focus on defending their total.
Ms Parker said the bowling and fielding effort from the team was top quality.
‘They came out and bowled very tightly, and held all the catches,” she said.
“There were some very good catches, including some volleyball-style catches where it bounced up off one fielder to another.”
The Launching Place women’s XI has been playing for about eight years, formed by a group of local mums who wanted to get out onto the field. Initially, they had to play as far away as Mt Martha before the growth in women’s cricket led to the forming of the RDCA-run competition this year, bringing more teams in from much closer to home, including Yarra Junction who play in the B Blue grade.
Bayswater Park was blown out of the water by Launching Place’s bowling attack, bowled out for only 54 after 24.4 overs, handing the Launch girls their second premiership in a row and the first of the inaugural year of the competition.
Georgia Parker, Ella Amore, and Stephanie Cousins all took two wickets as part of the devastation of Baywater Park’s batting lineup, with Amanda Morrison the pick of the bunch with an astonishing 3 wickets for 2 runs from her 4.4 overs.
Last season Launching Place beat Norwood in the grand final, who finished first in the regular season of this competition, before being toppled by Launching Place again in this season’s semi-finals.
They are hoping to run a second women’s side next season.
