The triumphant youngsters show their pride.
A PATIENT Russells Creek won the Warrnambool and District Cricket Association under 17s premiership yesterday.
The Andrew Thomson-coached side tore through West Warrnambool’s talent-laden batting line-up for 50.
Russells Creek recorded a three-wicket win after carefully chasing down the total. It took 44 overs.
Creek finished on 8-52.
Thomson said Creek put West Warrnambool under early pressure.
No Panthers batsman managed to score double figures.
Anthony Rook (2-8), Jamin Baulch (1-6) and Callum Humphreys (1-6) did the damage with the ball for Russells Creek.
“We always intended to bowl this morning. Our number four batsman Jack Primmer had Rebels commitments this morning so he played a practice match,” he said.
“He was up there at 10am and we decided his ability with the bat could be crucial so we decided to bowl.
“There was little bit in the wicket early, it was a little up and down and we put them under a bit of pressure which they obviously had not been under for most of the year.
“Brad Worden and Jack Ansell early on set the tone and Anthony Rook, our leg -spinner, bowled particularly well to capitalise on their work.”
Russells Creek opener Riley Owen top scored with 20 not out and player of the match Jordan Wallace made 14.
Creek was 5-25 at one stage and slowly compiled the winning runs.
Panthers all-rounder Ben Threlfall took 4-6.
“Riley Owen opened the batting and batted particularly well,” Thomson said.
“We thought that with our long batting list we’d always be able to chase down the runs and we weren’t worried about how fast it happened but it took a bit longer than I would have liked.”