Lakers go down to Northerners in Clyde Young Shield decider

The Lakers would have been cursing their luck shortly after electing to bat, though, with Jake Buckland making Saturday’s first imprint to remove William Ulrich for two.

Dale Short would skipper the offence in the meantime, though the scoreboard hardly ticked over at anything other than a snail’s pace for the day’s majority.

It ended up a 39-run stand with Blair Taylor-Lloyd contributing eight at a strike rate below 10 — 82 balls faced — but those toils proved largely in vain when he and Short were each back in the sheds with little in between.

Those two were the first of four scalps Dallas Furnell would ultimately claim for the innings, with just about every Jet finding a way to pitch in as no fewer than eight remarkably walked away with at least one catch to their name.

Scoring was at a premium, so petering out doesn’t feel like the appropriate term, but the Lakers’ batting wagon eventually broke down under the weight with 122 on the board.

Much as Tim Brett had accomplished a day prior in the D-grade decider, Trent Sidebottom came in and sought to leave no trace of a contest from the opening spot as he calmly composed a seemingly impenetrable innings.

The bat-raise was more than earned and, by the time Darby O’Brien had his man, the premiership total was less than 20 away.

It was all at a canter from there as Northeners firmly stamped down the successful chase to proclaim a new top dog in B-grade cricket at the first time of asking.

It was done on the scoreboard, but the Jets would go about seeing 20-plus overs beyond the target as club talisman Stuart Turner picked up a half-century of his own, rapturous, though delayed, cheers emanating from the stands when the call was made shortly after lunch.

There were a few handy contributors among the green outfit, but Furnell’s destructive outing had him judged a class above as player of the match.