Catherine Ferraro
KILMORE First XI made a strong start in day one of its Seymour District Cricket Association round seven clash against Alexandra on Saturday.
The Blues won the toss and despite a shaky start with the early loss of openers Justin Colliss and Dale Tassone, were able steady the ship with a strong partnership between Travis Hede (47) and top scorer Hayden Smith (59).
Coach Travis Blackwell had nothing but praise for his batsmen.
“The partnership between Hede and Smith really set us up and Rod McLeod was great as well.
“Having a cricketer of Rod’s experience at number five is very handy as he just knows what to do in any situation,” Blackwell said.
McLeod made 49 runs and helped steer the Blues against Alexandra’s in form bowlers
Justin Leary and Ross Malcolm who took 5/52 and 3/65 respectively.
Kilmore made a total of 257 off 77 overs, assisted by Brandon Dickson with an unbeaten 26 to hold the tail.
Blackwell described the side as happy with the total and eager to take the field against the first placed Alexandra this Saturday.
Reigning premiers Avenel look in control in their match against Nagambie despite being 1/1 following the loss of Jarrod Smith for a duck.
Smith and Willie Wheeler dominated with the ball restricting Nagambie to 189 with figures of 5/65 and 3/39.
Tallarook made a strong 257 cc against Eastern Hill despite the best efforts of Stuart Hanley who took 4/79.
Paul Arandt smashed 126 runs alongside Leigh Irving’s 57 to have the visitors in a good position when play resumes this Saturday.
Seymour struggled against Broadford’s in form bowlers to only manage a total of 131 off 48.2 overs.
Stephen Kelly top scored with 60 against the combined efforts of Mitch Collier 4/50, Matthew irving 2/17 and Brendan Walsh 2/27.
In reply, the Red and Blacks were 1/94 with Jake Zerella unbeaten on 65.
B-grade
Simon Heather top scored for Kilmore with 90 in the side’s one day match against Seymour.
The Blues batted first and powered away to make 8/214cc. Mick Hunter had the best figures with 4/42.
In reply, Seymour could only manage a total of 116 with Hunter and David McGahey both making 34 each.
Broadford enjoyed a 25 run win over Nagambie.
Broadford won the toss and made 9/133 cc through the efforts of Damien Inness 28 and Jake Martin 25.
Tristen Murray had the best figures with 3/30.
In reply Nagambie fell for 108, with Martin backing up his batting effort with figures of 5/45. Robert Auld top scored with 32.
Kilmore top the B-grade ladder by percentage from Broadford, both on 39 points.
C-grade
Both Kilmore and Broadford took the points in C-grade by forfeit.
Under 14
A superb all round effort from Ben Cooney helped Kilmore defeat Tallarook by 80 runs.
Cooney took 6/3 and with the help of Nicholas Simons 2/1 and Jarrod Sawyers 2/8 decimated Tallarook to restrict them to 27.
In reply, Kilmore made 3/107 with Cooney top scoring with an unbeaten 30.
Kilmore Gold also took the points in its match against Alexandra thanks to some great all round performances.
Bradley Reynolds and Alexander Gayapersad were both unbeaten on 27 and 25 in Gold’s total of 3/104 cc.
They then backed it up with the ball with figures of 2/13 and 3/12 respectively.
Christian Hibberd had the best figures for Alexandria with 2/9
In reply Alexandra was 8/72.
Broadford defeated yea Tigers by five runs.
Broadford 4/111 (J. Scully 30*) defeated Yea Tigers 4/106 cc.
