Green powers Lawrence to victory
By Tim Howard
A neat 100 runs from Lawrence batter Rowan Green has powered his team to a stunning outright win over Coutts Crossing in the revamped CRCA first grade competition at J J Lawrence Field, South Grafton.
Rowan Green was only dismissed once for his “century”, scoring a dashing 73 coming in a number 8 for his team, which was tottering at 6/60 chasing Coutts’s first innings total of 164.
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Rowan Green was eventually dismissed with the scores level at 164, but Coutts ensured a first innings tie, knocking over number 11 Ben Shaw for a second ball duck.
Green held his nerve as more wickets fell and his team’s chances looked shot at 8/77.
But Dylan Harrison, 25no, dropped anchor and the pair whittled away Coutts’ first innings lead to nothing with an 87-run partnership.
Coutts Crossing’s second innings was carnage, bowled out for 77 in 24.5 overs.
A promising opening stand between Tim Tilse, 24 and Andrew McLachlan, 4, put on 33 and a handy 21 from Lewis all came to naught.
Chris Townson, Ben Shaw and Nathan Anderson chipped away with early wickets, but with the score at 4/67, spinner Doug Harris put a full stop on the innings.
The next four wickets fell for no runs, three of them to Harris, to turn the match on its head.
Harris took the last wicket to fall, giving him the remarkable figures of 4/7 from 4.5 overs.
Anderson also had a fine return with 3/16 from five overs.
Green, who took the final catch of the game still had a role in the run chase for outright points.
Lawrence began uncertainly with big hitting Mark Ensbey hitting a return catch to Tilse second ball with score on 1.
But skipper Nathan Ensbey was undeterred and launched a blistering assault on the Coutts attack.
He was the only other wicket to fall for a 23-ball 39 with five boundaries.
Green came in and kept the score ticking over at almost a run a ball to score 27no and give him “century” for the afternoon.
Harwood all rounder Ben McMahon backed up his 131 with two key wickets when bowling against Lawrence at Lower Fisher Park, Grafton, on Saturday.
Lawrence hit the winning runs in just the 11 over to secure and unlikely outright after a disastrous first day.
At Lower Fisher Park, Grafton, Harwood wiped the floor with Souths/Westlawn, bowling them out for 86 and 77 to pocket the outright points.
In their first attempt, Souths Westlawn were never in the hunt with opening bowler Duncan Fischer picking up for four of top six batters to have the impressive figures of 4/17 from 10 overs.
In trouble at at 3/40, Souths/Westlawn plunged out of contention in the next new few overs losing four wickets for four runs.
A late rally took them to 86, with the last wicket falling in the 30th over
A 128-run lead handed Harwood the right to enforce the follow-on and put the Souths Westlawn batters under pressure.
They crumbled yet again, battling for 37 overs, but never really troubling the Harwood attack.
Skipper Ben McMahon tore through the top order with 4/11 from 11.5 over and Corey Lewis was equally devastating, taking 4/12 from seven overs.
The outright wins to the Harwood and Lawrence make them the dominant teams in the competition which was revamped over the Christmas break when Brothers announced it could not field a team in the premier league.
Outright points were up for grabs in the third game of the round between premiers GDSC Easts and Tucabia Copmanhurst.
Tucabia were deep in trouble at 5/27 chasing Easts’ 9d/162 and lost their last five wickets for 21 to be bowled out for 48.
The only two bowlers tried shared identical figures with Theodore Lobsey and Shannon Connor both taking 5/23 in the rout.
Following on, Tucabia made a much better fist of its second innings.
Opener Tim Bultitude was unbeaten on 64, Rohan Hackett batted solidly for 34 and Matt Pigg 27no, defied the Easts attack for 47 overs.
Connor put in another 15 over spell to take 1/36 and five other bowlers were tried with only limited success.
Despite the heavy loss Tucabia will be heartened that Hackett has returned to the bowling crease with his left-arm pace bowling, after a long injury break.
He took 3/14 from eight overs to be the best of the Tucabia attack on day one.
On Saturday round two of two-day games begin with Easts playing Souths Westlawn at J J Lawrence Field. Harwood hosts Coutts Crossing at Harwood Oval and Lawrence and Tucabia Copmanhurst clash at Ellem Oval.
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