Country week cricket: Geraldton sides fall in the opening round to Bunbury and Eastern Districts

Both Geraldton’s country week cricket sides were defeated in the opening round on Sunday in Perth.

The number one side, contesting A-section, was beaten by Bunbury by 35 runs at Breckler Park.

Bunbury won the toss and batted, though for most of the innings the Geraldton bowlers kept a lid on the scoring rate. But Bunbury finished the innings strongly to reach 172.

Damien King (3-24) made early inroads and Kodi Giltrow did well to take 1-22 off 10 overs, captain Jai Russell claimed 2-34 off 14 overs and Clayton Bruce-Cherry (2-17) cleaned up the tail.

Bruce-Cherry also held a fine overhead catch and effected a run out with a good throw to Ringo McKenna to end the innings on the last ball of the Bunbury innings.

Geraldton scored 137 in reply with Bruce-Cherry (23) and Henry Anderson top-scoring with 24. But they and five other batters who reached double figures all failed to go on with it.

The seconds, who are in B-section, were mauled by Eastern Districts at Rosalie Park.

Geraldton batted after captain Aaron McAuliffe won the toss, but were bowled out for 80 with only Jarrad Jupp (26) and Gus Heberle (20) making an impact.

Eastern Districts secured the target for the loss of only two wickets and went on to make 159. Heberle (4-43) and Matt Russell (3-32) had success with the ball.

The second round of country week was played on Monday, January 15 as this newspaper was going to print. Geraldton A-grade took on West Pilbara while the B-grade side went up against Great Southern.

Both sides can’t afford to drop anymore games if they want a chance at contending for finals.