With the summer of cricket in full swing, the Mount Gambier and District Cricket Association has fielded a variety of junior sides in recent weeks.
At this time of year the Country Cup is at the front of minds and the Under 14’s were the last of four South East junior sides to take part on the Fleurieu Peninsula.
South East opened its account against Eyre Peninsula and was sent in to bat and found the going tough straight away.
The top order struggled to adapt to conditions and struggled to handle the opposition’s consistent areas slumping to 5/15.
Watching the chaos unfold from the other end was Teej Lawlor, who hung tough for 39 balls reaching 10.
But even he could not last for too long getting run out.
The only other two batters to show some fight were Archer Virtanen and Riley Clarke with their cameos helping South East gain some respectability before being bundled out for 78.
In the early stages of Eyre Peninsula’s run chase, the South East fielders were up and about sensing a possible chance at a heist.
Harvey Croker and Harrison Hicks were on fire with the new ball slashing the batting team to a wobbly 3/17.
However, Marlie Fauser’s unbeaten 39 put the run chase back on track and helped Eyre Peninsula cruise home despite the late loss of two poles.
Despite the character building defeat, the future was much brighter for South East.
It found its groove against Yorke Peninsula in a one-sided contest.
Even though regular wickets were hard to come by, the South East attack remained tight and did not allow the opposition to break free.
South East’s strong work led by Croker’s 2/11 restricted Yorke Peninsula to 5/80 from its 20 overs.
The target proved no match for the South East top order despite a mix up causing Charlie Bevan to be run out for a duck.
Cambell Hateley and Blake Vause were in fine form guiding their team home by nine wickets with seven overs to spare with the former flourishing to 53 from 43 balls.
The South East let the good times roll in against Upper North after being forced to post a total.
Vause and Ashton Lindner were in fine form at the top of the order to push to the strong position of 1/56.
But Upper North had a trick up its sleeve and slashed through the middle order to not only wrestle the initiative, but gain the ascendancy.
South East lost 7/31 and was in danger of posting an under-par score before some brave hitting by Hicks propelled it past triple figures.
His late swing proved valuable as Upper North chipped away at the target.
South East struck at regular intervals with Lindner and Darcy Twigden claiming two wickets each.
Even after restricting Upper North to 5/38, their efforts did not appear enough at one stage Charlie Wilson threatened to steal the contest scoring a brisk 41.
But once Lawlor finished his fightback with a critical run out, South East managed to close out the tense contest by 13 runs with Upper North batting through its 20 overs finishing at 8/91.
To keep its faint semi-final hopes alive, South East needed a convincing win in its final game against Western Suburbs and gave it everything.
Bowling first Croker set the standard making a mess of Wil Ainscough’s stumps early doors.
Archie Rawlings (22) and Muhammad Ahmad hung around for a while, but did not present significant threats with the Limestone Coast bowlers keeping runs at a premium.
Once they fell, Western Suburbs found scoring tough and turned its attention to survival.
Western Suburbs managed to bat through its 40 overs, but could only post 6/102.
Virtanen was the only bowler with multiple wickets, while receiving strong support from Croker, Twigden, Clarke and Bevan.
The target proved to be well within reach of the South East top order with the top three only needing 17.3 of the 40 overs.
Vause saved his best performance with the bat to last and looked serine scoring 53 from 50 balls.
After he raised the bat for the half century, Vause retired leaving Lawlor and Croker to get the job done.
Lawlor batted through the innings finishing on 33 and hitting the winning runs, while Croker was two not out.
Despite recording a convincing 10-wicket win, it was not enough for South East to progress to the finals in the cut-throat competition.
There was also plenty of cricket being played on the Victorian side of the border as the MGDCA sent teams to the annual Portland carnival.
Mount Gambier’s Under 13’s line up coached by Shane Grigg played with plenty of promise finishing a respectable sixth in the 12-team competition.
The young team got off to a great start scoring a big win over Hamilton White.
Ryan Grigg’s unbeaten among other strong knocks helped Mount Gambier post a solid 4/147.
It proved to be more than enough to defend as Hamilton White crawled to 9/73 after Scott McBain and Lachie Cameron did the damage picking up two wickets each.
Mount Gambier crashed back down to earth in its second contest going down to Warrnambool Gold.
The Victorians set the bar high at 2/132 and the SA team battled, falling 44 runs short with only Ryan Lucas (20) offering some substance.
Mount Gambier’s up-and-down campaign continued when it overcame Wimmera Mallee.
Grigg’s team looked a lot more comfortable batting first with its top order standing strong to exceeded triple figures.
Mount Gambier finished at 4/104 led by Lucas’ unbeaten 32, which set the game up for Ollie McCracken (3/7) to tear through Wimmera Mallee and restrict it to 9/85.
Chasing once again proved challenging in a low-scoring affair as Mount Gambier stumbled to 64 all out in response to South West’s 7/87.
The roller-coaster competition finished with a thriller against Wimmera Mallee.
Bowling first, Mount Gambier would have been satisfied with keeping its opponents down to 9/78 from its 20 overs after McBain’s 3/7.
However, even with McCracken’s and Troy Horbury’s solid contributions, Mount Gambier could not get over the line falling short by two runs in a battle which went down to the final ball.
