Mooroopna produces boilover to damage Katandra’s Haisman Shield safety net

It was already a weekend of enormous significance to the Cats, entertaining the club’s Ladies Day on the Saturday before the Kym Sugars Cup intra-club affair took centre stage on the Sunday.

Of course, the weekend was of great significance to Katandra as well, but for entirely on-field reasons.

They weren’t to know when play got started, but both morning results favoured the Eagles as Waaia and Tatura each failed to make up any ground in the race for Haisman finals places.

There was no joy to be found early on though, as Jac Smith Williams and Joel May produced the goods after the home side went in to bat first.

The duo produced a resilient 62-run stand to open the afternoon against a Katandra attack firmly on the back foot, but that was only until Bailey Simpson dug in.

Simpson’s heroic spell stymied a fast-starting Mooroopna top order as best he could, his name ever-present at the beginning of the scorecard as he skittled the first four batsmen by himself.

The run rate perhaps petered out somewhat following Williams’ dismissal right after notching his half-century, but coach Henry Barrow spiced up the late overs with 18 of his 20 runs coming via the boundary in a quick sugar hit.

All told, a strong Eagles batting line-up needed 165 for a crucial set of points, though Barrow took early honours with the ball by removing opener Ben Clurey for just six — all of which came off one swing of the bat.

Captain Ben Pedretti attempted to put the chase on his back with a noble 33 featuring five fours, but things looked dire once he fell, followed almost straight away by Mitch Black, to leave Katandra languishing at 5-56.

Brady Black became the man in focus at that stage, with he and Corey Hickford defiantly adding 33 for the ninth wicket, but Corey Meyer put matters to bed with the final pair in sealing a 46-run result.

Gaskill, as you read at the beginning of the story, took this head-turning result as a sign of total vindication.

“We lost five or six senior players, so to push these 18 and 19-year-old kids through before Christmas, wins like this come from the likes of them,” Gaskill said.

“At the break, I said to the boys we might have been 15 or 20 runs short, but I knew if three or four of us could get it right against a good batting team, we’d be more than capable.

“We knew it was going to be a difficult year, a year for learning, but they’ve shown us that they can play A-grade and they deserve to be here.

“I said to the boys before today we had three teams left who are in contention for finals; if we could knock off two and shake up the ladder, we can show teams that we’re not far away for next year.

“Henry was terrific for us today, and Cooper Sleeth, being 15 years old, is probably one of the youngest A-graders Mooroopna has ever had.”