Penola has lost its stranglehold at the top of the Hoggies Wines Barber Shield ladder after East Gambier overcame conditions and recent history at Scott Park on Saturday.

After winning the battle of survival in the heat of day one, the Bulldogs resumed their run chase of an under-par total under grey skies, which meant a vibe of last summer’s infamous semi-final between the rivals was in the air.

On that occasion Lachlan Jones and Michael Waters shattered East’s dreams and the pair was back, hungry to reopen some old scars.

But this time the Bulldogs showed some bite with the bat and a team performance secured a sweetly pivotal victory – the first since round 3.

At the start of day two, the hosts were the favourites only requiring 104 runs with all 10 wickets in the shed.

The first hour was going to be pivotal and East openers Leigh Von Duve and Ben Hentschke needed to dig in to stop nervous memories of last summer from creeping in and giving the Eagles a sniff.

Penola possessed the same artillery and use its big guns straight away.

Waters and Jones steamed in and gave it everything looking for the early breakthrough to start another crazy collapse.

Von Duve got going with a pull to the square-leg boundary, but his stay proved to be a short one when he edged a Waters delivery into the gloves of Eagles’ skipper Mark Smith.

The early wicket brought Penola back into the game and the visitors applied the pressure with four slips and a catching cover in place.

New batter Steven Cameron had a nervous start surviving close lbw shouts off both bowlers before breaking free with a lovely extended drive over mid off’s head.

At the other end Ben Hentschke took his time to settle in and was lucky to survive a peach from Waters.

But the gritty opener found his best with a flick over backward square leg and started pushing the hosts towards a position of strength with Cameron.

With all day to bat, the pair was watchful and knocked off more than half of the required runs.

But just when the stand looked set to take the game completely out of Penola’s hands, Hentschke’s handy innings of 28 was finished.

The wicket gave the Eagles the smallest hint of a chance and they went for it.

Birthday boy James Sullivan hung around for a while until becoming Waters’ third scalp for nine.

Cameron had steered the innings scoring a well-compiled 30 off 64 balls, but he was brought undone by the pressure of youngster Zac Zema.

The passage of play pushed East back to 4/92 which was enough to keep the visitors interested.

However, Penola’s hopes of a repeating the miracle of last summer were dashed as two of the most accomplished Bulldogs showed their skill when called upon.

Classy right-hander Dion Stratford tapped into his years of experience to stand up to the situation and he found an able partner in Emerson Marks.

The pair trusted their defence early scoring just three runs off the bat in as many overs before Stratford released the pressure with a boundary off Jack Mullan’s chinaman delivery.

The prolific duo was in no mood to give the Eagles a hint of an opportunity, keeping out anything remotely a threat and only attacking the poor balls.

The visitors frustrations at the unbreakable defence of Stratford and Marks grew as each over went past and by the tea break the pair nudged the Bulldogs out of a spot of bother to the brink of victory.

Marks hoped to kick on after tea, but the break disrupted his concentration and the youngster was caught off Lewis March’s spin.

Despite Marks’ knock of 19 finishing just one hit away from the target, Stratford looked as calm as ever.

He started compiling another handy stand with Ben Robinson and the latter brought up East’s comfortable first-innings win with five wickets still left in the shed.

With the points sealed and plenty of overs left, the Bulldogs started to have some fun.

Stratford’s innings went from a calculated crawl to a blazing blitz when he smashed 14 runs off three March deliveries.

Robinson made his way to 19, but like Marks the number brought his downfall, while captain Alex Hentschke’s second scoring shot was a six.

Stratford continued to accelerate and brought up his pivotal half century with a boundary.

After having some more fun he was eventually bowled by Zema on 63, but not before guiding East to victory and 7/208.

With the rock of innings dislodged, Hentschke declared, while Waters and Zema were the pick of the bowlers claiming 3/51 and 2/9 respectively.

The call left Penola to play out 14 overs with little to gain and had some fun restricting the visitors to 3/12 to finish a dominant game on top.

It was East’s first win in two months and captain Hentschke was relieved after overcoming Penola and the weather gods.

“It felt nice to get back on the winner’s list because we have had a rough run since the start,” he said.

“It is never nice to lose the toss on any day, let alone a hot one, so a few of us were worried about fielding in the heat, but I enjoyed the challenge.

“It became a war of attrition and I was worried they were going to post a big score, but Liam Turley and Ben Hentschke pegged them back nicely.

“We needed about 100 on the second day and that has been our bogey score in the last couple years.

“So, our top order led by Dion really did the job, settling in and playing patient cricket.

“They settled a few nerves and got us past the challenge before we cashed in, so it was a very pleasing day.”