B GRADE – BYE
C GRADE – 
TRAFALGAR V MOE 
Moe sitting 7th, travelled to 2nd placed Trafalgar looking to close the gap on the Top 4. With B Grade having the bye, Randy Straughair and Ben McCartney from last week’s B Grade lineup played C Grade this week. Regular B Grade Jesse Pheeney also joined the 3rd XI. The Ships won the toss and bowled.
MOE INNING
In a regular B Grade sight, Jesse Pheeney & Randy Straughair opened the batting for Moe in C Grade. The pair batted 14 overs, facing regular bowling rotations as it was the 6th Ships bowler used, in Liam Smith that got the first breakthrough at 1/48 dismissing Straughair for 26 (two fours & a six). Ben Jackson joined Pheeney and the pair added a further 41 for the 2nd wicket, seeing the Lions beyond the halfway point of the inning. Jackson (20) was caught behind off Shane Lanham in the 24th over at 2/89.
At the time of Jackson’s dismissal, Pheeney was unbeaten level with his career high score of 38. Chris De Vent (10) paired with Pheeney for 8 overs, seeing the youngster through to his maiden half century.
Moe sat 2/124 (31) with 9 overs to go when the innings took a bad turn for their sake as the Ships got right back into the game. De Vent was caught behind off Claridge in the 32nd over wicket maiden, Shannon Murphy 
was run out at the bowlers end in the 33rd and the surviving batsman from the run out (Pheeney 61) was bowled the very next ball. The collapse of 3/1 in 9 deliveries became 4/8 from 7 overs as the fresh batsmen struggled to make an impact. Ron Whitney was the 4th wicket in that collapse, caught behind off Claridge for 6 at 6/132 with 2 overs left.
Aiden Savige (2*) supported Troy Oakley (11*) as they added what proved to be a very crucial 13 runs from the last 12 balls to get the Lions to 6/145 from the allotted 40 overs. Brent Claridge (2/15 off 8.) was the Ships best bowler.
TRAFALGAR INNING
Ron Whitney & Hayden Edwards didn’t waste any time at the top of the innings taking 2 wickets each to reduce Trafalgar to 4/11 (B.Pace 3, L.Smith 1, B.Tonkin 1, S.Lanham 2) in just the 5th over. This exposed Trafalgar’s younger batters in the middle order early and it was the Lion cubs in Miles Verschuur & Ben McCartney that dismissed them to reduce the Ships to 7/34. Verschuur was supremely economical with 2/12 from 8 overs.
Trafalgar’s tail consisted of the more senior players in Kevin Hennessy, Brent Claridge & Craig White so the match, despite 7/34, was far from over. Hennessy and the last of the youngsters, Oliver White added 30 for the 8th wicket before Ron Whitney took his 3rd wicket, finishing with a remarkable 3/10 off 8 overs.
Claridge added 15 in a 26 run stand with Hennessy before Aiden Savage (1/23 off 5) had the former caught at 9/90 in the 33rd over, Trafalgar requiring 56 to win off of 46 deliveries. As the last pair, Hennessy & White immediately took the challenge to the Lions, with 9 runs off of the 34th. Savige conceded just two runs in the 35th & Edwards bowled a crucial maiden in the 36th over. The latter was a huge credit to Edwards, as after the early wickets, he lost his way a bit, bowling 13 extras (4 wides & 9 no balls), so to fightback with a maiden at such a crucial time of the innings with batters looking to attack, was brilliant from the young swing bowler. That over also meant Trafalgar now required 44 off of just 4 overs.
Hennessy (56*) & White (18) made a real crack of it though, upping the run rate off of Savige & Troy Oakley – who bowled a couple of overs at the death. The pair scored 9 runs off of the 37th, 11 runs off the 38th and 7 from the 39th, leaving 17 required off the last over.
Over 40: (1
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. 8 runs were scored from 4 legal deliveries before White fell to Oakley to wrap the Ships inning at 10/137 with one ball to spare, Moe winning by 8 runs.
Whitney & Verschuur were Moe’s best with the ball whilst McCartney continued his solid season to date with 1/18 off 7, plus also taking 3 catches for the day.
Moe Bowling:
R.Whitney 3/10 (8.) – H.Edwards 2/29 (7) – M.Verschuur 2/12 (8.) – B.McCartney 1/18 (7) – C.Rennie 0/24 (3) – A.Savige 1/23 (5) – T.Oakley 1/18 (1.5)
With the win, Moe climb to 5th on the ladder, just half a game outside the Top 4.
