Battle on for Bill Wilson trophy

By Iain Harley
LOWER Gully and Upper Gully are playing for the Bill Wilson Memorial Trophy and Upper appeared to have the early breaks when they sent the Gully in to bat.
Opener Wright was struggling with the bounce Jay Colee was getting and eventually fell to the hook shot. Adrian Millard fended a vicious delivery off his gloves to be caught and bowled by Colee who then had Matt Black caught in the slips courtesy of an out swinger for 2.
Next to go was Randall Joseph, brilliantly caught at third slip by Alistair Lord off the bowling of Crystal, which brought Graeme Salan and young Ryan Handley to the wicket, consolidating at 4/78 at stumps.
At Fairpark, Under 21 Victorian representative Steve Bowen had Lysterfield on the hop taking 4/10. At one stage Lysterfield were 5/18 before Skipper Matt Dempsey and Jason Knight set about building a partnership that sees them 5/56 heading into next week.
An onlooker said of Bowen’s performance, “it was just a great spell of fast bowling”.
Upwey got away early from St Johns Tecoma with opener Paul Henry making 40 in quick time before Marc Hardy snared three wickets. It could have been worse for the Tigers with not out batsmen Dain Howe and Danny Taylor both dropped early in their innings. Upwey finished the day on 4/88.
In the other games Belgrave were 6/92 at Carrington Park in their game against Knoxfield. Mark “The Postman” Stewart took 3/37. Mountain Gate were 5/74 in their chase for maximum points against Knox Gardens.
The only game that will be abandoned in Knox Tavern Cup is that of Rowville against The Basin. At 6/22 early in their innings things were looking bleak for the Basin, but there were only 13 overs bowled before players left the ground for wind conditions that made it difficult to even stand up. The following rain ensured any further play was impossible.
All two-day games that had less than 20 overs bowled will be abandoned and played as a 45 over one-day game commencing at 12.45pm as per rule 2.2.3 VII.
All other games will continue with the team batting first eligible to receive the balance of their 80 overs and the game continuing until 6pm.