Penola is in box seat to secure the premiership points from West Gambier at the halfway mark of their blockbuster battle on Saturday.
With a strong knowledge of McCorquindale Park’s flat pitch and fast outfield, Eagles’ captain Mark Smith won an important toss to get on the front foot early in the round 5 contest of the 2021-22 Mount Gambier and District Cricket Association season.
A strong batting performance pushed Penola to a strong score of 5/245 largely thanks to the heroic return of Drew Clayfield.
Playing in Eagles’ colours for the first time in a decade, Clayfield looked like he never left, scoring a commanding 112 off 185 balls.
The right-hander was particularly prolific through the square leg region, punishing anything short or wide.
His innings was the backbone of Penola’s productive day in the field as the Roos were forced to toil under the sun.
However, the 80 overs were not all one-way traffic after the visitors started well with the new ball.
Sam Willis and Richard Crute quickly settled into their line and length and the latter found the breakthrough.
A run of just two scoring shots from 41 balls allowed the Roos’ skipper to clean up the defences of Jake Schulz for 10.
Lewis March and Jack Mullan had both made their way to 18, but the number proved unlucky for both of them when they fell to Steven Hughes.
At 3/53 the game could have gone either way and Penola stepped up in the pressure moment.
Despite having only completed his first training session for the team just days before the game, Clayfield looked in fine touch straight away and started building a game-changing stand with Michael Waters.
After a watchful start the pair expanded their games and targeted the spin of Connor Prior.
Around the halfway mark of the innings, West thought it had found the breakthrough after hearing a noise, but the umpire thought otherwise about the caught behind appeal.
To make matters worse for West, the side lost its captain Crute to a calf injury after just nine overs with the Kookaburra.
The setback forced Sam Willis and Justin DeJong to bowl more than half of the 80 overs themselves, while youngster Oliver Miles returned to the bowling crease after more than two years away and bowled respectably.
But the visitors were forced to search far and wide for wickets as Clayfield and Waters piled on 107 runs.
DeJong proved to be the man for the moment knocking over Waters for 38, but it paved the way for another Clayfield to make a notable impact at the crease.
With 19 overs left in the day, Thomas Clayfield had plenty of time to have his say and he got going with an early maximum.
He continued to pummel the boundary smashing a quick-fire 48 to add the finishing touches to the innings, while Drew Clayfield surpassed triple figures before falling to DeJong in the final over.
