There are clubs and then there are powerhouse clubs, for years Grovedale have been identified as a powerhouse club and on the weekend the boys picked up the full 10 points against them, quite possibly for the first time ever, resulting in the President shouting a free barrel for the boys.

Tom and his toss record have now hit 6 wins in a row, which include 3 from last year. In all 6 games we’ve won the toss and batted first. Saturday the guys got off to a ripping start with Sam clearing the fence twice early on. He raced to 43 before falling to a leading edge. When he fell the scoring slowed down a touch as Blake and Layton steadied. At 4/127 the guys still had plenty of work to do to get a defendable total, enter Bob and Soup. The pair put on a quick fire 30 with Bob freeing the arms up. When he fell and Tom fell soon after it was Soup who took on the role of finisher and just like last week he did it well. The running between the wickets of Cal and Soup was a real highlight as the guys put pressure on the fielders in the latter overs. With 2 balls to spare Soup jumped into the 50s with 2 massive bombs back over the bowlers head to see us finish 7/220.

With 220 runs on the board the boys looked sloppy in the field to begin with. Misfields and extras helped settle the Grovedale bats. Mitch finally got the first breakthrough but all that did was allow gun bat Jordan Moran to come to the crease. Moran looked a class above as our guys had no answers. A Sam Hall run out and the introduction of Bagga then pushed the game back in our favour as the see sawing contest continued. Tom would make several key bowling changes throughout the innings however Moran continued on his way and passed 50. Grovedale required 35 from 36 balls when Soup and Tom took control of the game and steered the boys to victory with some great death bowling. Soup picking up 2 late wickets whilst Tom grabbed the key Moran wicket to run out winners by 15 runs.

The 2nds made it 3 from 3 with another polished performance. The boys are ticking along nicely however they didn’t have it all their own way on Saturday. Batting first our guys stalled at 4/59 before the skipper Braden Szponar steered the boys out of trouble and off to a reasonable target to chase. He had valuable support from middle order bats Smidge and Patti Vis but his knock of 85 was clearly the standout in his sides 7/214.

With the ball the boys put the squeeze on early. Kingy and Grant both didn’t give Grovedale anything loose to get away. After their opening spells it was time for Mango to do his thing and do it he did. The Left arm Offie picked up 5 quick wickets to leave Grovedale in all sorts. In fact Grovedale lost their last 5 wickets for just 10 runs as North ran out big winners, Mang finishing with 5/16, his little mate Ferg finishing with 4/28 as Grovey were all out for 105.

The 3rd XI blue print last year was bowl first, bowl them out and then chase down the runs. This year the guys have batted first in all 3 outings and whilst bowling has been their key to success, Saturday the guys chalked up a reasonable score of 164. Josh Smith re found some of his last season’s form with 34 to top score whilst it was the younger guys in Tom Emery (29) and Fred Lucas (22) who also impressed with the bat.

In reply Grovedale seemed to be travelling along nicely before Tim Birch struck with 2 quick wickets. An lbw to Col Millard during his tight spell then switched the game back in our favour before Az Beecroft and Tim Birch went to work and put the finishing touches on the game as Grovedale were all out for 137. Birch finishing with 4/35 whilst Col Millard finished with 2/6 off 8 overs.

The 4s made it back to back wins with another brilliant bowling display. On paper, looking at the 4ths you’ve got 6 kids under the age of 20 and then a handful of experience with the other guys. Once again it was the youth that set the game up with the Demasi brothers both putting in stellar efforts with the ball. Younger brother Benny picking up 2/10 off 7 overs whilst older brother Will got 1/16 off 9. Not to be out done in it all youngster Aarav Jain bowled 6 overs, 1/8, whilst the skipper Jack Hall sat back and let the kids do their thing.

Chasing 104 for victory, young opener Harvey Marles made the most of his opportunity at the top as he compiled a handy 22. Luke Price backed up his 39 last week with another well made 34 as the guys cruised to victory with 18 overs to spare.

The youth were on display in our 5th XI also with another 4 kids under the age of 17, and it was the youth that stood up and bowled well to give our guys a chance. Playing against a reasonable Bannockburn 3rd XI side our guys restricted them to 156. Gavan Foran picking up 4/16, Riley Ward 2/34 and Chanda once again as tidy as ever opening up. In reply our guys just couldn’t quite get a partnership going as wickets were lost in quick succession. At 9/68 the game looked dead in the water as Browny and crowd favourite Wazza were the last remaining bats. Browny found the boundary on several occasions and not only saved face a little but at 9/111 gave the guys on the sidelines a bit of hope that the win could be achieved. Unfortunately a mix up occurred and Wazza was run out but the guys fought it out well to go down by just 43 runs in the end, showing that another win is just around the corner.

Our A Grade women found themselves back on the winners list with a fairly comprehensive win against a highly fancied Barrabool side that features ex Australian cricketer Annie-Rose Maloney. Bowling first it was Steph Murphy who got the first wicket. Sophie Walker backed her up with a ripping spell but it was Jordyn Stewart who picked up the prized wicket of Maloney. Skipper Helen Jones did her thing with 3 middle order wickets and a run out as the girls restricted Barrabool to just 99. In reply, there hasn’t been enough spoken about the form that Sophie Walker is in. Her first 4 hits for the club have featured 42no 32no and 39 before yesterday finally cracking her way to her first half century in the black and white. Her 53 not out set up the run chase as partners were hard to come by. Luckily Nat Murphy stuck around as the pair put on 71 together to get the girls home to get their season back on track at 3 wins and 1 loss.

The same can’t be said for our B Grade Girls who can sense a win is just around the corner. After narrow losses in Rounds 1 and 3 the girls were on the end of another narrow defeat. Batting first our girls made their way to 9/83 as the top order struggled to get going. A partnership of 21 between Char Quagliaro and young Tash Millard got the score ticking over before Char then partnered with Jess Lee to add some respectability to the score. Their partnership of 23 gave the girls a total to bowl at as Char top scored with 14. In reply it took Collendina 18 overs to chase down our girls score with 4 of our leading bowlers all doing a great job. Daisy Sheehy, Lucy Emery, Chelsea Beckitt and Heidi Windt all made it tough for the Collendina girls, whilst a shouthrough at out has to go to wicket keepers Suzie Franklin and Dani Mather who both didn’t let ny byes for the day. Also on Dani, in just her 14th game for the club she took the reigns as captain for the very first time, let’s hope she gets rewarded with a win very soon.

So with back to back 10 point white washes, our rise up the club championship table is on again. After winning last year’s by a comfortable margin, there’s no reason why we can’t challenge again for it this year. Next week in the men’s games we take on rivals East Belmont in what will be a must watch game. In the women’s our A Grade host Ocean Grove who won last year’s premiership and our B Grade head out to South Barwon. 2 weeks until the Christmas break, this week our Christmas parties were organised. For anyone that doesn’t know or understand, the Christmas Party weekend is almost the best weekend of the year. Get your names and payments in ASAP so that you can be apart of it!!