Towns secure cricket minor premiership by less than 1 per cent after convincing win against CVN

Towns has won the 2023-24 Geraldton Bendigo Bank Cricket League minor premiership by .08 of a point.

In other words, over 16 qualifying games, they outdid Wanderers by just eight runs or nearly half a wicket and therefore direct entry to the grand final.

Towns and Wanderers were big winners last Saturday, with Towns beating Chapman Valley-Northampton at the Rec by 157 runs while Wanderers trounced Bluff Point by 132 runs at Muir Park.

The star for Towns was Sam Crouch with an unbeaten 100, his maiden A-grade ton.

CVN was sent in but aside from Coen Mason (21) and Seth Farmer (23) cameos, they imploded to be all out for 83. Ringo McKenna (4-20) was deadly while Austin Breen (2-10) exposed the middle order.

To their credit, CVN took half Towns’ wickets before the game was lost with Breen (17) and Jai Russell (26) among the outs.

Brad Boyer did well to remove Darcy and Kodi Giltrow but when Crouch arrived at 5-62, the game changed. He hit two sixes among his first three scoring shots and three in all, along with 10 fours.

He also added 84 at better than a run a ball with McKenna (41) and Towns made 9-240. Crouch brought up his 100 in the second-last over with a single to mid-on.

“First job was to get the win and once we secured that we did the maths on what we needed to retain top spot and went about job number two,” Crouch said.

“Ringo and I knew bad balls would come and just had to keep ticking over the strike.

“Happy to be straight into the grand final, anything can happen in a semi so best to avoid it and it’s great the team is in form and hopefully we can bring it together when it matters.”

Wanderers were always ahead in their game after being sent in and making 7-276 built on Zane Marwick’s superb 112 not out. He hit 13 fours and a six to continue a great debut summer in Geraldton.

Others in the top five, Damien King (22), Clayton Bruce-Cherry (52), Henry Anderson (24) and Kade Gillingham (50) also made runs. Cody Doran (3-55) and Jeremy Boase (2-59) had some success.

Bluff Pt crumbled before Gus Heberle (6-44) and made 144 in reply. Anderson (2-17) also had some spoils. Doran (29) and Jay O’Brien (17) made starts and Carl Shilling (45 off 19 balls) was enjoyable.

At women’s Country Week, Geraldton’s A-grade lost but the seconds won their B-grade game. A full report will be in Friday’s Guardian.