By Colin MacGillivray
ROMSEY appears primed for another deep Gisborne and District Cricket Association, GDCA, McIntyre Cup finals run after a posting only the second outright victory of the season in the final round.
The Redbacks vaulted to second place on the ladder on the back of their 7/248 declared, 5/94 declared to 99, 72 thrashing of bottom side East Sunbury in a match that concluded on Saturday.
The win was spurred by dominant bowling performances from Aaron Paterson, who tore through the East Sunbury line-up with 6/15 from 10 overs in the first innings, and Louis Moor, who claimed 5/32 from 10.3 overs in the second.
Romsey skipper Ben Way said the Redbacks would enter the finals in their best form of the season.
“We’ve had a pretty good block in the last five or six weeks of cricket,” he said.
“We knew we’d need a fair few points on the weekend to achieve our goal of finishing at least third and pushing for second. The higher you finish in the home-and-away season the better off you’re going to be in the finals series, so … we’re pretty confident and excited going into finals.
“Diggers Rest jumped above us early in the season after they had a big outright win, and it was good to do it back to them later in the season.”
Way praised the efforts of Paterson, Moor and the rest of the Romsey bowling attack.
“Quite often we get a fairly good spread of wickets. It’s not often this year that you’d look back and see someone take five or six. More often we’ve got three or four people taking two or three each and spreading the load, but it was good for [Aaron] to get six and Louis in the second innings to get five,” he said.
“Louis bowled unbelievably well against Sunbury United [in the previous round]. He bowled 14 overs and got 0-21. He kept beating the bat, and when you’re doing that sometimes you get rewarded in the next game.”
The Redbacks will host Bacchus Marsh in this weekend’s qualifying final, drawing plenty of confidence from their 159-run demolition of the Bulls only a month ago.
This year’s finals format has been changed, with the minor premier playing sixth place on the ladder, second place facing fifth and third and fourth squaring up, with the two lowest ranked losers to be eliminated and the remaining four teams to play in the semi-finals.
Way said his team, motivated by last season’s grand final loss to Gisborne, would need to be at its best if it hoped to earn another chance to play for a premiership.
“Over the past few seasons we’ve started really taking it up to the top teams in the competition,” he said.
“We’re confident against whoever we play going into the finals, but you’ve still got to put the performance on the board over the Saturday and Sunday, because nothing is guaranteed.
“We’re confident and excited. After losing the grand final last year, you’ve got to go through the whole process again to try to get back there.”
Johnstone Shield
Way said it was not just Romsey’s first XI, but the entire club excited at the prospect of finals, with the Redbacks’ division two team claiming a minor premiership and their second-tier Johnstone Shield side finishing second.
Standing in Romsey’s way in this weekend’s Johnstone Shield semi-final will be competition newcomer Kilmore, which capped an excellent GDCA debut season with a near outright win against Kyneton in the final round.
The Blues withstood the loss of two early wickets thanks to a virtuoso performance from opener Kevin Craddock, who carried his bat throughout the 75-over first innings for 175 unbeaten runs.
Ash Lovick, 38, and Jacob Walton, 36, also made valuable contributions to the huge Kilmore total of 9/338.
In reply Kyneton was bowled out for 134, with Kilmore veteran Brett Buttler 5/27 from 16 overs, and Lovick, 3/26 from 6.4 overs, dealing the bulk of the damage.
Kilmore enforced the follow-on, but could not come up with the required wickets before the close of play on Saturday, with Kyneton 4/103.
Blues captain Josh Buttler said the team was thrilled to be playing finals in its first season in a new competition.
Kilmore has played Romsey twice this season, with both meetings remarkably ending in thrilling one-run losses for the Blues.
Buttler said he hoped the team’s recent strong form and the potential of some inclusions for the finals would be enough to reverse the result this weekend.
“We’re at the pointy end of the year, and it’s very exciting to be in the finals in our first year in the competition,” he said.
“We should get stronger with a couple of players back this week. Hopefully our best is yet to come and hopefully we produce it at the right time.
“Kevin has been our best batter all year and he’s coming in in some good form. We hope he continues that in the finals, and I’m sure he will.
“We’re expecting it to be close again. Hopefully we get on the other side of the ledger this time, but it should be a great game.
“I think we’ve gotten stronger as the year has gone on in terms of our best 11, so hopefully with a bit of added strength we can get on the other side.”
Buttler said the team would focus on its own game rather than spend time planning for the Romsey opposition.
“There are always going to be some adjustments given that we’re a predominantly turf team and we’re playing them on concrete, but ultimately you can’t focus on that too much. You’ve got to focus on your own game,” he said.
• For Seymour District Cricket Association, see here.
