Rendelsham 4/100 def. Kingston 10/99
Afirst-time hattrick by Rendelsham’s Sam Bell was the highlight of round 11 in the Millicent/Naracoorte Cricket Association on Saturday.
Bell snared his three consecutive wickets in the match at Kingston.
The seasiders had been aiming for a 150+ total when they had reached 7/99 and their opponents were tiring in the warm conditions after 24 overs of toil.
However, Bell had other ideas as he dismissed Nicholas Worthley, Lachie Worthley and Jack Murdoch with the first three balls of his third over.
It was the first hattrick in local cricket since clubmate Jake Wight achieved the rare feat a few seasons ago.
The stocks of Kingston plummeted as the morale of Rendelsham rose.
Earlier in the Kingston innings, there had been a more even contest of bat and ball.
The ever-reliable opener Callum Paige top-scored for the home side with 25.
Bell took the bowling honours with 4/11 while the best of the rest of the Rendelsham attack was vice-captain Jacob Carger with 2/7.
Chasing a modest tally of 100, the top five visiting batsmen all reached double figures with the best being Carger with 24.
The target was reached in the 25th over with Rendelsham having six wickets in reserve.
Kingston used six bowlers with four of them taking one wicket each.
Mount Burr 8/113 def. Millicent Black Hats 9/112
The 2024/25 season has thrown up numerous tight finishes with the latest being Mount Burr chasing down Millicent’s modest tally of 112 with one ball to spare.
The hero for the home team was veteran Rob Francis who hit the winning runs.
At around 50 years of age and one of the most accomplished local batsmen of his generation, Francis is content nowadays to bat well down the order and play a mentoring role.
Francis faced up to Jacob Todd in the 40th over with five needed to win.
He took a single off the first delivery and then Sukhain Dalliwal was run out on the next.
This brought Francis back on strike.
The third delivery from Todd was a dot ball which meant the home side needed four to win with three balls remaining while the Millicent Black Hats needed two more wickets.
Francis calmly stroked the fourth delivery for two and repeated this result with the next.
It was quite an upset as the Millicent Black Hats are the ladder leaders and reigning premiers while the Mount Burr team has been near the foot of the competition for much of the season.
Due to the forecast hot weather, the starting time of the game was brought forward 90 minutes to 11.30am.
The game was also played with haze and smell generated by smoke from the Victorian bushfires.
The Millicent Black Hats had made 112 thanks mainly to the efforts of captain Mitchell Nitschke (25), opener Cambell Hateley (27) and Teej Lawlor (16).
Adrian Thompson was the stand-out bowler with 5/28.
The Mount Burr batsmen who did the heavy lifting were vice-captain Jack Francis with a game-high 40 along with wicketkeeper Taylor Allen (20) and Steve Hughes (14).
Jackson Cushion and Ashton Lindner each took two wickets.
The hot weather policy forced the cancellation of the Naracoorte Warriors/Lucindale match at Naracoorte.