Penola struggled to seize on its unexpected home ground advantage during the opening day of its Hoggies Wines Barber Shield contest with North Sportsman’s at McCorquindale Park.
The fixture has been plagued by bad luck after venue and personnel changes forced both sides’ plans out the window.
The Tigers were expecting to play their must-win match against the Eagles on home turf at Marist Park until its gate was closed following Mount Gambier’s recent fire.
It was then moved to the Blue Lake Sports Park’s turf wicket which was free for the round, but after tearing up the previously pristine baseball diamond, the corellas then turned their attention to venue’s cricket ground.
The latest corella attack meant the contest was moved again to McCorquindale Park and Penola welcomed an extra home game with open arms.
However, that was only the start of the drama as both sides were forced onto the back foot on match eve following a COVID-19 outbreak within the South East Country Cup squad.
This meant North missed Nick McInerney, Tim Young and Declan Kenny, while Mark Smith and Michael Waters were absent from the Eagles’ team sheet, so the depth of both clubs was put to the test.
The Tigers sent the home side into bat and its second-string attack was able to apply the pressure straight away.
Although six runs were scored from the opening over, the run rate slowed quickly and scoring became a grind as the day wore on.
Young guns Isaac Mulraney and Zach Clark hit the pitch hard and removed Lewis March, Jack Schulz and Drew Clayfield cheaply.
The excellent opening spell left Penola in early trouble at 3/27 after 10 overs, but some of the pressure was released by Theo Telford, who unfortunately struggled to land it on the cut stuff.
Telford enjoyed a much cleaner second over before being dragged by stand-in captain Mitch Lewis as the experienced Lachlan Jones and Jack Mullan looked to rebuild the innings.
Uncharacteristically the duo scored just two fours in 18 overs at the crease until Lewis brought himself on and found the edge of Mullan’s bat after 28 hard fought runs.
His wicket fell in the middle of a 33-ball period without a run off the bat.
Veteran George Kidman joined Jones and both batters used their experience to keep the scoreboard slowly, but surely ticking by.
Their gritty stand pushed Penola beyond triple figures and into the driving seat until Jones’ gritty 144-ball 31 came to an end.
The big wicket was just reward for ageless spinner Michael Johnston, who toiled for 12 straight overs until striking gold.
It also gave the Tigers a sniff back in the game and the hungry side closed in on its pray.
Kidman proved to be the only man to offer any resistance for the rest of the innings and once he was accounted for by Matthew Robinson, the hosts had little to give as the last four wickets fell for as many runs.
It was a disastrous end to Penola’s hard-fought 131 from 71.2 overs.
Johnston was miserly with 3/28 off 21.2, while Mulraney and Robinson also claimed multiple scalps.
It meant North only had five overs to negotiate, but a smart call from Eagles’ skipper Mullan gave the yellow and black something to think about.
Kidman’s left-arm orthodox was brought on for the final over and he struck Robinson’s pad dead in front of the stumps to head to the sheds on a high.
