By Trevor Jackson
WEST Gambier secured an outright victory in Round 9 of the Hoggies Wines Barber Shield season with a strong performance against Mil Lel on Saturday.
The Roos set the victory up on the opening day of play last week after bowling Mil Lel out for just 50 runs in the first innings.
They then declared at 3/62 before putting Mil Lel back into bat.
By stumps on the first day Mil Lel had already lost two wickets, with Craig Lock and Tim McInerney back on the sidelines and less than a half-century on the scoreboard.
Day two came and there was no respite, with Jack Miller gone early and Daniel Justin not long after.
When Darcy Williamson departed for six, Mil Lel was struggling at 5/62 and the hope to avoid outright defeat was fading fast.
However, Nick Walters had dug in and was joined by Logan Gibbs, with another 30 runs added before the former was sent on his way for a handy 25 runs.
Gibbs went on to make 21, while Carey Megaw chipped in with 20 but no other Mil Lel batsman could reach double figures and the side was bowled out for 125 in the 61st over.
Sam Willis had done much of the damage with the ball, with figures of 4/28 off his 19 overs.
Niall Easterbrook claimed three scalps to give West a hot chance of an outright win.
However, it did not all go to plan with the bat, as the Roos struggled to 4/29 before they settled.
Kale Wrightson (1) and jack Geddes (3) were back in the shed inside 10 runs, while Connor Prior was run out for 11 with the total at 18.
When Sam Coxon was bowled by Gibbs for five with the total at just 29, West looked shaky.
Jake Blackwell and Willis changed that, with a timely 64-run partnership to steady the chase.
Both were gone in the space of a run, but the damage had been done and West recorded its outright victory.
Meanwhile up at McCorquindale Park Penola was another recipient of an outright defeat, as East Gambier went to work with the ball in hand to set the scene.
The Bulldogs had chased down and passed Penola’s first-innings total by stumps on the opening day, with the home side at the batting crease for the first ball on the second day.
Again the wickets fell early and Penola was struggling a 4/37.
The top order failed to impress, as Jack Schulz was out for seven, followed by Jack Mullan for a duck, Mark Smith for eight, then Lewis March for 13.
Thomas Clayfield and Michael Waters offered some resistance, with 20 and 12 runs respectively but after 25 overs East took the willow in hand to chase the outright victory.
Just 41 runs were needed and the Bulldogs chased it down inside 22 overs.
Over at Marist Park North Sportsman’s did not achieve an outright win but managed an impressive victory over South Gambier just the same.
It panned out to be an entertaining two days of cricket, with both sides batting out the full 80 overs each.
North had reached 8/294 at stumps on day one, an imposing target for a South victory.
However, day two began in similar style, with bat having the upper hand over ball for much of the innings.
Daniel Loupos and Adam Kuhl created a solid foundation with a half-century opening stand, before Kuhl fell victim to Nick McInerney for 14 with the total at 50.
Loupos pushed on with Dave Somerfield and a 36-run partnership resulted.
Loupos was eventually caught off Declan Kenny for 37 and the incoming Josh Thompson could not offer anything to the scoresheets, despite sticking around for 10 deliveries.
He became another victim of Kenny but the Demons were not about to lie down.
Michael Sims joined Somerfield in the middle and the pair put on 44 runs before Tim Young claimed the prized scalp of Somerfield for 54 and at that stage a victory was looking unlikely for the Demons.
Sims went four runs later and James Dunn eight runs after that but down the order Nick Seager (38), Matt Bowering (31) and Jakob Opie (18) offered some resistance.
In the end South pulled up short by a fair amount, 9/233 at the end of the allotted overs, but provided plenty of entertainment along the way.
Kenny was the best of the bowlers with figures of 3/51 off 24 overs.
