GRASSMERE Cricket Association (GCA) has been crowned Bendigo Country Week division two champion after coming out on the right side of a thrilling final.
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The GCA defeated Colac and District by one run in a game that went down to the wire at Bell Oval on Friday.
GCA coach Steve Blacker praised his team for an outstanding week.
“We came here to win it and that’s what we have done,” Blacker said.
“Of course it’s easy to say that but there is a lot of work needed to pull that off.
“The professionalism of the whole squad was amazing, everyone was in it together and working towards the same goal.
“We had someone like Brayden Buchanan who missed the final with a hamstring. We left the decision to him and he made the call that he wasn’t right, he put the team before himself and that’s the sort of commitment we have had.”
The 35-over-a-side game was played in close to 40 degree temperature with the GCA keeping its cool to make it five wins from five games for the week. The victory comes after the GCA won just one game for the week last year.
There were heroes with bat and ball for the GCA, with Braden Hotker whacking 86 from just 65 balls.
It was a brutal, and timely, innings, which included nine fours and five sixes. Hotker came to the wicket with his team in a delicate position at 4-63, with 20 overs to face.
He received support late with a whirlwind innings from Ben Julius.
Julius blasted 41 off 25 balls to help the GCA to a total of 214 from 34.4 overs.
With the ball, it was the leg-spin of captain Paddy Mahony that was the most damaging when it came to grabbing Colac and District wickets.
Mahony finished with 4-32 from seven overs, helping his team pull back a flying start by Colac and District, who was in control at 0-90.
“They liked the ball coming on early and they got away from us a bit,” Blacker said.
“We went to bowling stump to stump, Paddy, Chris Lenehan and Nathan Shand did that really well and that dried up their boundaries.”
Colac and District needed 14 runs off the last over from Shand but the veteran Panmure paceman was able to produce some early dot balls to put the pressure on.
Shand then grabbed a wicket late in the over and despite a six off the last ball, Colac and District fell one run short, finishing on 8-213 off 35 overs.
The GCA will now be promoted to division one next season.
“If like this year we can get most of our best players involved then there’s no reason we can’t challenge at the next level up,” Blacker said.
