West Gambier v East Gambier


West Gambier has kicked off its two day matches with an important win over reigning Mount Gambier and District Cricket Association champions East Gambier at Allan Scott Park.


East Gambier started day two of round four of the Barber Shield requiring 189 runs to win with 10 wickets in hand.


It was tough batting conditions for the home side and the West Gambier bowling attack gave East no easy route to score.


It was a slow start for East only making two runs in the first three overs of the day, eventually James Sullivan was able to put a Bray Stephenson delivery to the boundary, however not long after Stephenson found the edge from Sullivan dismissing him for 6.


Two balls later Alex Hill was departing for a duck with Stephenson once again finding the edge.


Aiden Creasey and Emerson Marks attempted to stabilise the innings and build a partnership, but the West attack was too good and both were out within an over of each other.


The East Gambier batsmen struggled to get themselves in as West Gambier continued to find consistent breakthroughs.


Captain Alex Hentschke was the first to get to double figures for East but was then caught LBW for Justin deJong’s third wicket.


East was in real trouble as ti found itself seven down for less than 50 runs with only one batsman making double figures.


Ben Hentschke and Connor Little built the Doggies’ best partnership for the innings and the pair found consistent runs that had been hard to find for the other batsmen.


Unfortunately for East Gambier just as it started to look promising West found the breakthrough with Hentschke caught LBW on 18 by Nikethana.


Nikethana picked up a second not long after with Marc Roberts bowled and caught for one.


Little’s excellent innings finally came to an end on 43 as he was stumped for Nikethana’s third wicket of the day.


East Gambier was all out for 105 after 55 overs falling 85 runs short of the total set by West Gambier the previous weekend.


West had 24 overs to bat and East found an almost instant breakthrough with Alex Hentschke bowling Gunawardana for one.


The wickets came far more consistently then they did for East in the first innings with only Jayden Prior passing the 15 mark.


Prior was caught LBW by Marks on 33 and West finished the day five down for 64.


Evan Clark, Connor Little and Marc Roberts also picked up wickets for East Gambier.


Justin deJong was the standout with the ball for the day picking up 4/23 off 18 overs, while Nikethana was also impressive taking 3/45.


Connor Little was the highlight with the bat with 43 off 60 balls.


West Gambier secured a dominant win that will be a big confidence booster for the upcoming fixtures.


East Gambier will hope to return to the winners’ list next week when it takes on a winless South Gambier for the second of its two day matches.


South Gambier v Mil Lel


Mil Lel secured its third win of the season with a dominant batting performance against South Gambier on Saturday.


After suffering its first loss of the season in round three Mil Lel showed excellent resilience during round four of the Barber Shield.


Chasing 138 Mil Lel restarted the day at 4/88 with two set batsmen in Dale Bachmann and Toby Grigg.


The pair continued from where they left off the previous week and continued to cause the South Gambier bowlers problems.


The pair piled on the runs and took their side past South Gambier’s run total to secure the points for Mil Lel.


Bachmann continued to find the boundary, however Grigg was finally dismissed, falling just short of a half century.


Grigg’s innings of 48 was brought to an end by Bryce Whicker after 131 balls, Bachmann followed two overs later run out after a terrific 61 off 137 balls.


At 6/159 Mil Lel was in a very comfortable position, however South Gambier found another breakthrough of Jack Miller for 2.


The fall of wickets continued with Archer Virtanen for 2, with Mil Lel losing a disastrous 4/8 after the ending of a 112 run partnership.


Harry Hicks and Mitchell Little steadied the ship and provided some handy runs to Mil Lel’s total putting on a 29 run partnership when Little was caught on 16.


Hicks was caught behind on 17 to finish Mil Lel’s innings after 69 overs with an excellent 211 on the board.


Jakob Opie and Bryce Whicker were both highlights with the ball taking three wickets each, while Jaggar Geary also took two important wickets late in the innings.


South Gambier had time to bat and it was more of the same from Mil Lel with the ball consistently finding breakthroughs.


Harry Hicks found some early breakthroughs dismissing Adam Kuhl, James Miller and Jaggar Geary for low scores.


Jakob Opie was the only highlight for South Gambier in the top order with a quick fire 31 off of 25 balls before being stumped off the bowling of Mitchell Little.


Noah Maxwell managed to get his eye in and race to 14 runs but was then bowled by Grigg in a crucial moment.


Jed Sims and Stephen Easterbrook were the highlights in the middle order with the two scoring 33 and 32 respectively.


Sims finished not out at the end of day’s play with South Gambier 8/131, the highlight with the ball was Hicks who finished with 3/21 after six overs.


South Gambier now enters round five without a win on the board and will have a tough matchup against East Gambier.


Mil Lel will host a Penola side also desperate to find its first win of the season.


Penola v North Sportsman’s


The Penola and North Sportsman’s clash was unable to be completed due to the weather as the teams settled for no result.


Penola will certainly feel hard done by as the side had North in a tough position at 4/25 chasing 180.


However, Penola remained winless and North escaped from the jaws of defeat to stay unbeaten.