Centuries rained in the tenth round of the Bundaberg Cricket Rum City Foods Intra Cup at Salter Oval on Saturday with three players achieving the feat.
Waves’ Ryan Norton returned to his belligerent best with an unbeaten 123, and young Brothers captain Mitch Parsons and East Bundy Magpies big hitter Lennon Childs each blasted their maiden top grade tons with 132 and 103, respectively.
Ryan was the main-stay in the unbeaten Waves’ imposing total of 6-300 from their 45 overs against Magpies, plundering 10 sixes and six fours in his first century since last season’s opening round when he racked up an unconquered 149 against Norths on 28 September 2019.
East gave it their best shot in their run chase but after losing two early wickets including Queensland Country star Arden Lankowski, they were always fighting a losing battle, finally being bowled out for 230 in 42.2 overs with opener Lennon the ninth wicket to fall after hitting out for 9 sixes and 6 fours.
Left arm paceman Mitch Waters again led the attack for Waves, taking the first two wickets before finishing with 3-33 from his nine overs to take his tally at the top of the wicket-takers list to 17, two more than veteran Norths spinner Bruce Worthington.
Captain and spinner Luke Owen also claimed three scalps.
Twenty-year-old Mitch, who started in under-10 with the club 11 years ago, also led from the front for the Brethren, anchoring the innings with 10 fours and four sixes in a coming of age, and leading them to an also impressive 7-285 in his first ton since scoring 123 in Division 3 on 6 November 2016.
Batting two short after losing two players to injury, Norths were never a chance in their chase, finishing at 8-130 in reply with seamer Andy Porter the main destroyer with 4-28 to complete a handy double after chipping in with 29 with the bat.
Even with each team having four matches remaining, playing each other once more, Waves have an iron grip on the minor premiership with 48 points, while Brothers moved to 33 points to strengthen their claims to second, with East remaining in third on 21, followed by Norths 15 and Hervey Bay 3.
On Friday night, Headlands Pies inflicted Searle’s RV Centre Vikings’ first loss of the season in the Aussie Bundy Big Bash, beating them by 17 runs to join Betta Heat in equal-second position and set up a winner-takes-all penultimate round showdown with them this week.
Opener Jesse Richardson (53) and Matt Jackson (40 not out) led the Pies’ batting charge while crafty spinner Chris Duff opened the bowling and struck three telling blows in his 3-17.
Yesterday, Bundaberg overcame a batting collapse to, in the end, defeat hosts Gympie by 61 runs in the third and final round of the Goodchild Shield to advance to the grand final on 14 February.
The Rum City slumped to 5-22 with five of their first six batsmen collectively managing a mere five runs in tough conditions.
No. 4 Tim McIntosh came to the rescue with 45, before Arden Lankowski and captain Chris Duff weighed in with 33 and 20 respectively to carry the total to 148.
Chris and Arden then wreaked havoc with the ball with 4-15 and 3-15 respectively as Bundaberg again flexed their muscle.
In Hervey Bay Softball, there is a three-way tie at the top of the A Grade Ladies table between United Firesticks, Waves Tsunamis and Terrors after Tsunamis defeated Bargara Bullets 11-4 but then lost to Firesticks 7-0, when fixtures resumed after the Christmas-New Year recess at Brothers Sports Club on Saturday.
Needing a big effort in the first game of their double-header, Waves delivered, resulting in the mercy rule being invoked in five innings.
Highlights included with catcher Anna Vicenzotti leading the way with four safe hits in four plate appearances, backed up well by Queensland under-18 representative short stop Hannah Leggett with a double and two singles, and first baser Fay Gleeson with two 2-baggers.
A couple of errors in the field were over-shadowed by three double plays, first being a fly ball to Tarah Staines, then throw to second base for the out, while second was a put out at second by Hannah and throw to first base, and the third was pitcher to Hannah and then a throw to first base.
Even long-serving Association umpire Michael Trost could not recall three doubles in one game.
Unfortunately, a 30-minute break was not enough for the Tsunamis to recover for their second game, and coming up against the ladies competition’s strongest pitcher in another state under-18 representative Chelsea Zunker, their safe hits dried up, as evidenced by seven strike-outs in 16 at bats.
Reigning premiers Firesticks took control with six runs in their second inning, and they never relented.
Just one A Grade Men’s match was played with Terrors moving to outright second in standings, edging out Misfits 6-5.
Results
Cricket Bundaberg
AUSSIE BUNDY BIG BASH
HEADLANDS PIES 3-139 (Jesse Richardson 53, Matt Jackson 40no, Kelvin Cochrane 3-1-11-1) d SEARLE’S RV CENTRE VIKINGS 122 (Eddie Ryan 33, Chris Napper 25, Trent Seeds 24, Chris Duff 4-0-17-3, Sam Lowry 4-0-18-2).
GOODCHILD SHIELD
BUNDABERG 148 (Tim McIntosh 45, Arden Lankowski 33, Chris Duff 20, Dean Chandler 9.4-0-36-5, Brycen Mitchell 7-1-13-2) d GYMPIE 87 (Nicholas Laffey 38, Chris Duff 8.2-3-15-4, Arden Lankowski 8-3-15-3).
RUM CITY FOODS INTRA CUP
WAVES 6-300 (Ryan Norton 123no, Michael Loader 70, Brendan Grills 41, Chris Duff 26, Ben Davey 9-0-55-3) d EAST BUNDY MAGPIES 230 (Lennon Childs 132, Jayden Larsen 38, Mitch Waters 9-2-33-3, Luke Owen 7.2-0-46-3, Marty Maloney 9-0-63-2).
BROTHERS 7-285 (Mitch Parsons 103, Eddie Ryan 48, Andy Porter 29, Jarrod Laycock 27, Bruce Worthington 9-1-39-2, Alex Turner 7-0-54-2, Laird McKay 8-0-57-2) d NORTHS 130 (Julian Bond 27no, Andy Porter 9-1-28-4).
DIVISION 2
WAVES 190 (Sean Stuchbery 74, Jason de Papi 43, Richie Sharman 6.1-1-25-3, Mick Penny 8-0-34-2, Shaun Pinney 8-0-43-2) d NORTHS 157 (Craig Fritz 41, John Balaam 34, Shaun Pinney 28, Matt Fleming 5-2-5-3, Sean Stuchbery 8-1-31-1).
EAST BUNDY MAGPIES 4-207 (David Bonser 79, Hayden Pope 43, Jesse Richardson 31, Harry Johnson 3-1-13-1) d BROTHERS 64 (Roy Heath 7-1-8-4, Ashley Pollitt 7-3-8-2, Laurie McCloskey 3.6-2-3-2).
DIVISION 3
BROTHERS 7-226 (David Boge 100no, Ashley Helmore 58, Clint Mathiesen 32, Sam Cavanagh 7-1-21-3, Lex Webster 6-0-26-2) d YMCA 9-223 (Richmond Felstead 47no, Greg Brady 45, Brett Woodward 34, Hayden Sarnadsky 25, Tyson Cox 5-0-22-2, Shannan Heycox 5-0-28-2).
EAST BUNDY MAGPIES 8-214 (Eric Petersen 70, Jordan Petersen 50, Evan McLean 29, Artie Richardson 26, Jack Beveridge 6-0-40-3, Josh Wormington 7-0-54-2) d WAVES 159 (Mitch Wormington 57, Roderick Jensen 8-0-23-3, Ryan Trott 5-0-19-2, Greg Rehbein 6.3-0-49-2).
Softball Hervey Bay
A GRADE LADIES
UNITED FIRESTICKS 7 d WAVES TSUNAMIS 0; WAVES TSUNAMIS 11 d BARGARA BULLETS 4.
A GRADE MEN
TERRORS 6 d MISFITS 5
B GRADE LADIES
UNITED CROSSFIRE 9 d BARGARA BANDITS 6; WAVES SEASHELLS 13 d WEST PANTHERS 6; BARGARA LEOPARDS 19 d WAVES BREAKERS 6.
B GRADE MEN
UNITED FLAME 21 d WAVES CRUISERS 0; TERRORS 9 d MARYBOROUGH 2.
UNDER-16
UNITED TNT 11 d WAVES WAVERIDERS 4; WAVES DRIFTERS 10 d BARGARA BRONCS 3.
UNDER-14
WAVES TORPEDOES 11 d BARGARA BANDICOOTS 7; UNITED BLAZE 15 d WAVES TORPEDOES 0; WAVES RIPTIDES 14 d WEST TIGERS 3.
UNDER-12
UNITED SPARKS 13 d WEST JAGUARS 6.
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