COMPETITION pace-setter Nestles and finals aspirant Wesley-CBC emerged big winners from Saturday's rain-affected round 10 games.
The Factory and the Beavers were the only Warrnambool and District Cricket Association division one winners with three games drawn because of rain. Nestles' emphatic victory over fifth-placed Woodford all but stitched up top spot for the Factory, which is undefeated with two two-day matches remaining before next month's finals series.
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But Wesley-CBC's 37-run win against sixth-placed Dennington and significant bonus points in the second innings as it got close to pushing for an outright triumph, threw the race for the finals wide open.
The win lifted Wesley-CBC above Dennington to sixth on the ladder, less than a win behind Woodford and within striking distance of fourth-placed Allansford.
The draw also looks like being a factor in deciding which sides make the finals with third-placed West Warrnambool and Woodford facing tough runs home.
West plays second-placed Merrivale and top side Nestles in the final two regular season games while Allansford plays Woodford and Dennington and Woodford has Allansford and Merrivale.
In stark contrast, Wesley-CBC has games against two sides ranked below it, starting with eighth-placed Russells Creek next Saturday and then ninth-placed Port Fairy in the final match.
Wesley-CBC captain David Tucker maintained his side was only an "outside" chance to make the finals despite snapping a three-game losing streak.
"It's really important next week but I keep saying it, our batting is not right," Tucker said. "Somehow we are still a chance to make the top four. If we can get our batting together we know the rest is good enough."
Tucker said his side's inconsistent form with the bat was highlighted on Saturday when the Beavers lost 5-20 in a middle-order collapse that sent shockwaves through the camp.
Resuming at 2-56, Wesley-CBC looked in command getting to 70 before the collapse as it slumped to 7-90, still 11 short of victory.
Number eight Ben Dalton (16) and number nine Tom Bowman (6) put on 13 for the eighth-wicket to secure the result at Walter Oval.
Tucker said his side had hoped to have wickets in hand when it reached Dennington’s total so it could push on and go for an outright win. But with a lead of just 37, those plans were ruined, he said.
Batting a second time, teenage paceman Mitch Bowman destroyed Dennington’s top-order claiming five wickets in his opening spell before having to be taken out of the attack because of restrictions on the number of overs he could bowl.
That slowed the Beavers’ push for maximum points as Jamie Fogarty and Terry Beks dug in. At stumps Dennington was 8-88.
Across at Reid Oval, Nestles captain Brett Eldridge was delighted his side had restricted Woodford’s chase for an unlikely 338 to just 131 and given it the advantage of playing the lowest finisher in the semi-finals.
With nearest challenger Merrivale unable to get a result in its game, Nestles increased its lead on the chasing pack.
“We are pretty happy to put a little extra gap,” he said.
“It makes the race for the top four pretty interesting with third to sixth stacking up.”
He said the Factory would be working towards the finals with specific goals — a luxury it hasn’t had in previous seasons, being forced to fight to the end to make the top four. “We had probably played our finals the last couple of years so now we can get things right for a tilt at them.”
Opening bowler Alex Pye did the damage on Saturday claiming three wickets in a match-winning 14-over spell into the wind at the start of the day.
In other games, Allansford was disappointed a heavy rain shower brought a premature end to its match against Merrivale with more than 90 minutes remaining. The Gators (276) had Merrivale in trouble at 5-112. A 3pm start ruined Russells Creek’s hopes of reeling in West Warrnambool’s 280, reaching 4-156 in just 48 overs and bottom-side Brierly-Christ Church faced just 32 overs as it was denied a decent crack at Port Fairy’s 182, being 2-62 when the rain hit.
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