Team spirit: Cricket Shepparton finished Junior Country Week off strongly. Photo: Cricket Shepparton Facebook
Northern Rivers Junior Country Week action showcased northern Victoria’s best cricketing prospects and the Cricket Shepparton brigade stood atop the pile.
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Weather-enforced difficulties meant grand final Friday became an impromptu double-header for numerous squads, with under-13 and under-17 teams completing their group stages in the morning before grand finals were due that afternoon.
Under-12 White ended the week winless, but its counterparts in Blue saw grand final action against Goulburn Murray Cricket.
However, the GMC boys prevailed emphatically on the day after rolling their foes for 49.
The under-13 bowling contingent battled hard in its final group stage game against Murray Valley Cricket Association, with an enormous task after only setting the MVCA 56 for victory.
That the final margin was only three wickets was an admirable feat in itself, but there would be no grand final place for the under-13 squad.
The under-14 side encountered adversity against the same opponent on Thursday, needing a win over MVCA to have any chance of going further.
Chasing 156 for the win, Cricket Shepparton was mathematically alive heading into the final over but would ultimately fall 13 runs short.
News improved in the higher divisions as the under-15s took to Barooga for their decider against Bendigo.
Led by three wickets from Notre Dame’s Jayden Thorne, the batters’ premiership target was only 96.
Waaia’s Kyren Dawson shouldered much of the chase with a mature unbeaten innings of 33, steering Cricket Shepparton to its first taste of premiership glory for the day.
The under-16s had the chance to go two-for-two in a scintillating grand final showdown with Bendigo.
Euroa star Walter Jackson scooped a three-wicket haul in Bendigo’s eventual innings of 9-173.
Hayden Kruse of Old Students led the reply from the opening spot with 42 (three fours), but three runs in the final over created a dead-heat.
Bendigo would be awarded the premiership by virtue of group stage positions after the deadlocked grand final, but the Cricket Shepparton group acquitted itself strongly.
Success: Cricket Shepprton left Junior Country Week far from empty-handed.
Capping proceedings for the annual carnival was the under-17 decider, where Cricket Shepparton met Bendigo for the third straight grand final after beating GMC in the morning to earn its spot.
A touted Old Students prospect in Harrison Willaton was the pick of the bowlers as Bendigo posted 8-81 from its 20 overs, with a sharply economical spell of 2-8 from his 18 balls.
Openers Ethan Beck (Notre Dame) and Sam O’Brien (Old Students) took the game on by themselves, knocking bowlers about from start to finish in a rampant 10-wicket premiership triumph.
It was a mixed range of fortunes, with the three younger divisions missing grand final action.
At the same time, the three older squads came within one single run of completing the premiership hat-trick, highlighted by a dominant under-17 showing.
Bendigo’s under-16 triumph on a countback was a heartbreaker, but the week was a valuable experience for many of the brightest talents in the region.
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