By Colin MacGillivray
CHEERS, tears and beers flowed in equal measure at Sunbury’s Langama Park on Sunday as Romsey ended a 40-year premiership drought in the Gisborne District Cricket Association’s McIntyre Cup competition.
The Redbacks clinched the cup with a display of exactly what captain Ben Way has preached all season – consistent, patient and disciplined batting and bowling.
Playing on the road against Sunbury United, Romsey won the toss on Saturday and elected to bat, with openers Matt Milne and Chris Burkett making the most of the 80-over format and taking their time to settle in.
Just when the pair seemed to have laid a stable platform the partnership was broken, with Rajitha Mendis dismissing Burkett for 11 in the first of his four wickets.
The dismissal triggered a nervous period for Romsey, with Milne, 12, Nathan Hoy, 7, and Tim Dale, 11, falling for the addition of only 32 more runs.
With Romsey’s premiership dream in danger of becoming a nightmare at 4/55, Taylor Stevenson joined Way at the crease to build what proved to be a match-turning partnership.
During a span of nearly three hours, the duo put on 109 runs for the fifth wicket before Way was stumped for 67, but Stevenson batted on as partners Adam Frost, 8, Corey Day, duck, and Aaron Paterson, 3, fell around him.
Stevenson’s match-high innings of 68 finally came to an end when he was caught off the bowling of Ashan Ranaweera, and Romsey’s innings also ended shortly thereafter when Jamie Taylor fell for five, with the Redbacks all out for 199 in 78.3 overs.
With all of Saturday night to prepare for a long day in the field, Way admitted nerves crept in, but he said he maintained a positive mindset.
“We were reasonably confident, but in cricket you always think you’d feel better if you had another 50 runs,” he said.
“We would have felt a lot better if we had 250 on the board, but we played them at Romsey [earlier in the season] and 180 was enough on a very quick ground.
“There have been some big scores at [Langama Park], but apparently it was a much different ground – dry and fast – whereas it was very slow this weekend.”
Romsey made the most of the slow ground on Sunday by suppressing Sunbury United’s scoring rate to start the run chase.
Ranaweera made 15 speedy runs for the home side before falling just as quickly to Paterson, but thereafter scoring opportunities dried up as the Romsey attack, led by Paterson, Moor, Taylor and Stevenson, forced Sunbury United’s Damien Edwards and Steven Fogarty to bat with extreme patience.
While the Redbacks struggled to dismiss the duo, the run rate dropped below two an over – well under the 2.5 runs an over required by Sunbury United at the start of its innings.
A bowling change proved to be just what Romsey needed, with Corey Day bowling Fogarty with his first ball.
The breakthrough gave Romsey fresh energy, and Paterson soon followed Day’s wicket with one of his own when he had Liam Sherlock caught behind for two, leaving the home side 3/67.
Sunbury United needed a saviour if it was to have any hope of winning the grand final, and it found one in the form of skipper Upul Fernando.
Fernando brought a sense of urgency to his team’s run chase after the tea break, batting with a disciplined blend of patience and aggression to push for runs without taking undue risks.
The scoreboard – and seemingly luck – started turning back in Sunbury United’s favour as one Jamie Taylor over yielded a missed catch and two inside edges that, rather than ricocheting onto the stumps, raced to the boundary for four.
“I nearly rubbed my eyebrows off after that,” Way said.
“You start thinking ‘is it not our day?’”
But where Romsey teams of the past might have panicked, the Redbacks stayed the course, confident in their ability to apply pressure with consistent line and length bowling.
That confidence paid off when Taylor finally got reward for his efforts by snaring the crucial wicket of Edwards for 64.
“If we’re ever under pressure, we just go back to bowling good balls and making them hit good shots. If you do that enough, you feel like you’re in the game,” Way said.
With Edwards gone, Fernando became the make-or-break player for Sunbury United. He continued to bat with the same disciplined aggression and attempted to control the strike, but as wickets started to fall around him the required run rate crept upwards.
The match hung in the balance with seven overs remaining, but with a vocal Romsey crowd cheering them on from the boundary, the Redbacks took the final three wickets in a flurry.
Hoy took a catch on the boundary to remove Fernando for 49 off Stevenson’s bowling and Milne gave Stevenson his third wicket by holding onto a skied shot from Cooper Boyes, ending the match.
With Sunbury United all out for 172, Romsey supporters stormed the field, joining in a raucous celebration with the players.
There were tears from many older onlookers, who had waited decades for the Redbacks to win a top-flight flag.
Stevenson earned man-of-the-match honours with 3-43 from his 21.3 overs to go along with his innings of 68, while Day’s five overs yielded an excellent return of 3/8.
Other wicket takers were Paterson with 2/29 from 14 overs and Taylor with 2/52 from 20, while Moor was unlucky not to take one with 0/25 in 11 overs. Adam Frost bowled a four-over cameo, finishing with 0/12.
Way paid tribute to his players after the match, thanking them for the years of dedication they had put into making the premiership a reality.
“It’s been 40 years since Romsey has won a premiership in the McIntyre Cup, so carrying that weight and still performing on the big stage is a big thing,” he said.
“There are a lot of people who have played from then to now who have been trying to do the same thing, and they’re the first ones to come up and shake your hand. They’re super excited and as happy as we are.
“It’s been a bloody long wait, so we’re going to enjoy it, and we’re going to be back again next year because we want to win another one.”
