The opening round of the Mount Gambier and District Cricket Association Hoggies Wines Barber Shield kicked off on Saturday with two one-day games played and another abandoned due to weather.
West Gambier played host to Mil Lel at Malseed Park, with Mil Lel opening proceedings with William Rowland and Craig Lock taking the crease.
It only took nine balls before Rowland fell early for a duck, with Lock only scoring one run.
This brought the combination of Jarrod Sanders and Darcy Williamson in to steady the ship, however both fell cheaply with Sanders notching up 10 and Williamson 8.
Captain Jack Miller took the crease with Logan Gibbs and looked to dig in with a 43-run partnership.
Gibbs found himself out on 25 after facing 39 balls, followed by Miller on 18 from 54 balls faced.
Mil Lel looked to its tail to wag to give some respectability to its score, but it was not the case with Dale Bachmann 6, Nick Walters 2, Thomas Smith 1, Mitchell Little 0 and Tye Dinnison 6 not out.
At the end of the overs Mil Lel was 10/93, with the home side’s bowlers not giving away any extras in its 38.3 overs.
Trent Badman in his return had the best figures of 4 for 8 while Kyal Chapman took two wickets and single wicket takers were Sam Willis, Robert Case, Nuwan Gunawardana and Ned Wilke.
It was West Gambier’s turn to bat and what a mighty effort it was in the run chase making 8/220.
Gunawardana and Justin De Jong opened for West before Gunawardana was run out on 8 while De Jong settled to score 69 from 80 balls faced.
He was joined by Jake Blackwell 63, Badman 24 and Nial Easterbrook 16 as the main stays of the West batting line up.
West proved too strong for their counterparts, winning by 127 runs.
The bowling for Mil Lel was headed up by Mitchell Little with 4/4 and single wickets were taken by Gibbs, Miller and Bachman.
East Gambier v South Gambier
East Gambier declared its intent for the 2022/23 season with classy batsman Dion Stratford firing with the bat to notch the first 100 in the A Grade competition and handing his side a 68 run win.
South Gambier batted first, opening with Daniel Loupos and Robert Drenthem who were solid before Drenthem found himself out on 9 followed shortly after by Loupos headed back to the sheds with 19 runs to his name.
Adam Kuhl and David Somerfield teamed up for a 38-ball partnership before Somerfield was out for a duck.
Youngster Jed Sims came to the crease with Kuhl in a bid to start scoring some much-needed runs, but it was Kuhl who lost his wicket early in the partnership, before Sims joined him on the sidelines.
Ethan Sims and Stephen Easterbrook looked to be on target to score but Easterbrook went cheaply on 10, followed by David Vine who only faced eight balls for his four runs, with Sims out not long after.
Ryan Kuhl did not trouble the scorers, leaving the tail to wag for South.
Captain Camron Jorgensen and Jakob Opie were at the crease and faced many balls before Opie was out on 11 leaving the not out batsmen in Jorgensen on 15 and the score at 10-109.
The bowling attack for East was wayward early but tightened things up later in the game, with the pick of the bowlers Alex Hentschke and Marc Roberts with three wickets each, while Liam Turley took two wickets.
East’s run chase did not get off to a good start, with openers Ben Robinson and James Sullivan back in the pavilion with ducks.
This brought Emmerson Marks and Dion Stratford to the crease, with Stratford taking every opportunity to smack the ball around the ground while Marks was keeping his end up.
Stratford dominated the 124 run partnership, while Marks contributed 17 runs.
Connor Little joined the run score with Stratford at the crease, but only managed nine before losing his wicket.
Captain Hentschke and Stratford combined to continue the run chase, with Hentschke racking up a respectable 28 before getting out.
That brought Alex Hill to crease, but he did not trouble the scorers, recording East’s third duck and leaving Stratford unbeaten on 107.
South’s bowlers had a good day early with Drenthem taking two wickets and Jorgensen, Opie and Ryan Kuhl single wicket takers.
Captain Hentschke was pleased with the effort of his side following an interrupted preseason and will go into next week full of confidence.
Penola v North Gambier
The McCorquindale Park match started with North scoring 6-79 off 27 overs before Mother Nature intervened and the match was washed out.
Michael Johnston managed 22 with the bat while Nick McInerny on 10 was the next top scorer.
Penola’s better bowlers were Paul Ellis with two and Joshua Doyle with one.
