Round 4 of the Mount Gambier and District Cricket Association Hoggies Wines Barber Shield heralded the start of two day competition on Saturday.

North Gambier took on South Gambier, with South winning the toss and electing to bowl.

South’s bowling attack got to work, creating headache’s for North’s top order.

Opener Mathew Robinson was unable to trouble the scorers before falling (0), followed by batting partner Nicholas Brown, who became the first of three scamps for South bowler Jakob Opie.

At 2/12, North was under early pressure and South was in no mood for mercy.

Harry Fisher (0) was Opie’s next victim, followed by Isaac Mulraney, who made two before an lbw decision sent him back to the sidelines with the score at 4/20.

Things did not look any better when Elliot Fisher (6) was dismissed by Robert Drentham.

At 5/20 North looked to be on its knees.

Enter Thomas Madigan and Tim Young.

The pair managed to stem the bleeding as they put on a mini run partnership to give some respectability to the score before Madigan (18) fell.

Young was forced to dig deep with a new batsman in Thomas Cull, with the pair trying to find the gaps of the outfield before Cull on 11 lost his wicket, leaving the score at 7/72.

A further three balls later Luke Richards (2) had his stumps removed and it was 8/75.

Young’s 58 ball stand came to an end on 26, leaving it to tail-ender Nicholas Mark to cobble together 24 runs to take North to a total of 110 from 45.2 overs.

South Gambier’s bowlers showed their class, led by Robert Drenthen who conceded a miserly 34 runs off his 16 overs, boasting four maidens and claiming three wickets.

He was well supported by Jakob Opie 3/25 and Camron Jorgensen 3/27.

South made the most of the early North dismissal, taking to the pitch with Daniel Lopus (7) and Drenthen (14) racing to 0/23 before the end of play.

Mil Lel V Penola

The Eagles won the toss and sent Mil Lel in to bat.

The home team got into its work, as opener William Rowland managed to find the boundary early.

However, his joy was shortlived when a Jesse Vass catch off the bowling of Lachy Jones sent him packing on 12 runs.

Jones claimed his second wicket – courtesy of a Joshua Doyle catch – just one ball later, with Brad Talbot leaving the crease as quickly as he arrived.

Logan Gibbs and Jarrod Sanders managed a brief partnership before Jones and Doyle combined again to end Gibbs’s innings on 13 3/39.

Only seven runs later Sanders (8) was out, followed by Jack Miller (3), with Mil Lel in danger of collapse at 5/50.

The situation worsened as Ty Dinnison (0) fell a ball later, followed in quick successuin by Darcy Williamson (9), Mitchell Little (0), and Jack Leishman (0), leaving Nick Walters 12 not out and the final score 79 from 39.4 overs.

Jones had a good return with the ball 4/18, with great support from Doyle 3/24.

This brought Penola to the crease and Mil Lel needing to take control before end of play for the day.

Unfortunately Jack Mullan (4) found himself back in the pavilion early with the score at 1/9 and then 21 runs later Tom Clayfield (10) was also gone with the score at 2/30.

It did not get any better with Mark Smith (0) falling short for Penola, leaving the score at 3/30 at the end of the first day’s play.

Walters 2/19 and Gibbs 1/13 had a great start and will be looking forward to continuing that next week.

West Gambier V East Gambier

Winning the toss, West elected to bat first on the home wicket and was looking for a good to start to day one.

Unfortunately it was not to be, with West losing the first wicket of Justin DeJong (8) with the run score at 1/26.

A further 32 runs later Nuwan Gunawardana (41) was out leaving the middle order to spend some time at the wicket and put the runs on the board.

Bray Stephenson and Jake Blackwell had some work to do and anchor the innings for West to be able to put a respectable score on the board.

Stephenson (15) was the first to go with the tally sitting at 3/68 and this had Sam Willis at the wicket, but that was short lived when he was run out leaving the score at 4/70.

Blackwell started to find the gaps but he fell short, only making 14 and taking the home team to 5/82.

With the score at 6/84 Sam Coxon (1) was out and a further nine runs later Jack Geddes (0) fell leaving the score at 7/91.

Trent Badman (10) tried to bring some respectability to the score, but he lost his wicket and things were looking grim.

Tail enders Ned Wilke, Kyal Chapman and Bailey Rothall managed seven runs between them and left the score at 99 off 48.5 overs.

Travis Younghusband was the pick of the bowlers with 4/20, well supported by Marc Roberts with 3/23.

East Gambier opened their account with Ben Robinson (5) and James Sullivan (2) and will need to be focused and have some luck on their side come next Saturday.