By Carolyn Sinclair
On a mild, autumn Friday evening on 18 March 2022, a group of 9 young boys from Hoddles Creek Cricket Club ventured to the Mount Evelyn Recreation Reserve to battle Mt Evelyn Cricket Club for the title of Premiers in the Ringwood and District Cricket Association’s Under 12-5s cricket grand final.
A large spread of purple and gold (HCCC colours) adorned the boundary at one end of the ground, with parents, grandparents, siblings, friends and HCCC senior players all showing their support for the youngsters.
Equally, across the ground on another part of the boundary, was the burgundy and white colours in support of Mt Evelyn.
The two teams have met twice throughout this season, and have won two games each, so everyone was a little nervous, and aware this premiership win could go either way.
Hoddles Creek won the toss, elected to bat, and used their permitted 23 overs to knock up a well held 94 runs at the loss of 6 wickets.
The innings break had both teams in huddles with their respective coaches, with no doubt a lot of encouraging words being spoken, and a lot of advice being given.
The second innings saw Mt Evelyn determined to chase down the runs, and a group of Hoddles Creek players in the field equally determined to stop them.
At the final ball of the match, Mt Evelyn needed 5 runs to win, and those very anxious supporters from both teams (none more so than the two coaches) had their hearts in their mouths.
A very close and exceptionally exciting match saw Hoddles Creek win by just four runs.
Final scores: Hoddles Creek 6/94. Mt Evelyn 3/90.
