In a fantastic weekend for the Kingston Crows Cricket Club all four teams had excellent wins with our 3 lower grades all advancing straight to the Grand Final while A grade will take on Slab Road in the Preliminary Final next Saturday on their home ground.

A grade returned to Sherburd Park to take on Blackmans Bay in the cut throat 1^st Semi Final. Batting first we saw Daniel Elliott and Marc Owen add 37 before the loss of our 1^st wicket in the 9^th over. Another wicket fell soon after and then Brett Stevenson was dismissed for 26 leaving us teetering at 3/73. An 80 run partnership for the 4^th wicket between Jamie Knott 68no and Joel Palmer 34 stabilized our innings but we were then 6/176 in the 44^th over. Robert Chapman joined Knott and the pair added a further 54 runs for the 7^th wicket as we ended on 6/230. Chapman remained 31no.

With a good total to defend our opening bowlers Dale Punshon and Trent Pearce then produced some outstanding bowling to have the “Sharks’ reeling at 4/7. It was always going to be a very difficult task to recover from that position  and our bowlers all performed well to ensure that it wouldn’t happen and the Bay were eventually dismissed for 150 in the 45^th over after their last pair added 35. Pearce took the honours with 4/45 but it was Punshon whose figures of 10 overs 6 maidens 2 wickets for 9 runs speak for themselves. He actually had 2/0 off 5 overs and 2/2 off 7.

B1 took on Slab Road at home where the “Roadies” elected to bat first. They were soon in trouble at 3/37 and after somewhat of a recovery were 6/92. Another partnership was followed by 3 quick wickets and we were well on top with their score 9/150. Their last pair then added 42 before the final wicket fell off the last ball of the innings leaving us to chase their total of 192. Scott Sward took 3/50, Jason Jones 2/34 and Sam Peacock 2/37. Our fielding particularly in the first 25 overs was first class.

After the early loss of Geoff Freeman, Levi Treptow 28 and David Bain 21 took the total to 1/60 before 3 quick wickets saw us 4/74 and the run rate required at more than 5 runs per over. Adam Hinkley 64no and James Murray 37 then combined to add an even 100 run partnership before Murray was run out leaving 19 runs required off 6 overs. Hinkley and skipper Andrew Henley then saw us to victory in the second last over.

B2 took on Judbury on their home ground and after a relatively solid start were in deep trouble at 5/91 and then 7/118. Captain Gareth Percey top scored with 69 and he combined with Ash Woodhead 53 no (3 4s and 4 6s) to add 71 for the 8^th wicket and enabled us to reach 8/217 off our allotted overs. Jason Cripps 22 and Damien Pearce 21 had earlier tried to set up our innings.

Judbury lost wickets at fairly regular intervals and were eventually dismissed for 138 in the 41^st over. Scott Chapman was the surprise packet with 3/24, Chris Tomlin took 2/14 and Andrew Denton 2/23 in a real fighting victory.

 

“From the Hill”