Lawrence closes on leaders with outright win
By Tim Howard
Lawrence has halted South Westlawn’s charge up the CRCA first grade cricket competition with an outright win at Lower Fisher Park Turf in Grafton.
The match was a low scoring affair with neither side topping 100, although Lawrence skipper Nathan Ensbey’s aggressive overnight declaration at 6-d/89 in reply at Souths Westlawn’s meagre first innings total of 66, set up the result.
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Batting second Souths found life difficult from ball one, when Joe Pigg fell caught by Darby Rouse off the bowling of Jarrod Ensbey.
In their first innings Souths lost their first wicket at the same stage to the same catcher/bowler combination.
Souths opener Anthony Dickson was next to go, caught by Rowan Green from the bowling of off-spinner Doug Harris, who opened the bowling with Ensbey.
Dickson said it was a difficult wicket to bat on after ran during the week had made it soft underneath.
“Balls from the spinners were popping up and hitting me in the chest,” he said.
“But we should have weathered it a bit better. Another 20 to 30 runs could have made a big difference.
Ensbey exploited the conditions perfectly with 6/25 from 12.5 overs and Harris was also dangerous taking 3/22 from 13 overs.
For Souths Westlawn Michael Fletcher showed his experience, in a rare return to the playing field, scoring a patient 39 from 76 deliveries.
Set 64 for the outright win, Lawrence found itself in early trouble as veteran seamer Nathan Blanch and fellow opening bowler Adrian Boyd made big inroads.
At 3/11 with batters of the calibre of Ben Hill, Mark Ensbey and Rowan Green back under the fig tree, South Westlawn’s modest total was looking more formidable.
But Lawrence skipper Nathan Ensbey marshalled all his experience and his score of 21 took his team to the comparative safety of 5/49.
Harris, 12no and Rouse, 7no, shepherded the team home.
Souths Westlawn skipper Nathan Blanch was in the wickets again but in a losing cause against Lawrence on Saturday.
It was a disappointing result for Souths Westlawn who needed all the points they could gather ahead of the final game of the season.
Dickson said his team probably needed an outright win in the final game against Coutts Crossing and other results to go their way, to make the semi finals.
At Ellem Oval competition leaders Harwood could not follow through for an outright result against last season’s premiers GDSC Easts.
On day one Harwood’s tail wagged to take it to 213 and they had Easts on the ropes at 3/61.
Opening bowler Duncan Fisher, 5/24 ran rampant as Harwood ripped through the rest of the Easts line up, dismissing them for 73.
Three of the last five wickets recorded ducks and totalled just four runs between them.
But when sent in again Easts showed far more resilience.
Early wickets tumbled, but Matthew Lobsey, 51no and Sean Walters, 16no, dug in and by the end of play had held the Harwood attack at bay for 29 overs and taken the score to 4/106.
Fisher continued his damaging form with the ball in Easts second innings, talking 3/22 from six overs.
Heavy rain during the week ruined any chance of play at Ulmarra in the game between Tucabia Copmanhurst and Coutts Crossing.
Tucabia looked to be on top after battling to a neat 200 last week and had Coutts at 2/13.
Rain on Thursday and Friday had made the wicket impossible to prepare for play, forcing the match to be abandoned.
In the final game before the finals, Easts play Lawrence at Lower Fisher Turf, Harwood and Tucabia meet at Harwood Oval and Souths Westlawn and Coutts Crossing clash at Ellem Oval.
Putting on his CRCA president’s hat, Dickson said an unofficial table incorporating points from the CRCA premier league games before Christmas and the post Christmas first grade games had been compiled.
It put Harwood on top with 77 points, Lawrence was just two behind on 75, Easts was third on 41 and Tucabia was fourth with 39.
Coutts Crossing on 30 and Souths Westlawn 25, look out of contention.
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