AFTER nearly six months of blood, sweat and tears, Seville confirmed its status as the powerhouse of the modern era as it secured a third premiership.
Over the past four years Seville has won three out of four premierships and it accounted for Yarra Junction with a complete display with bat and ball in the DJ Strachan Shield Final.
Seville did not hesitate to bat after winning the toss and the early going was classic grand final cricket.
Opening batsmen Scott Rackham and Adam Burns weathered an accurate and probing opening spell from Quentin Hodgkinson and Daniel Sharp.
Just as the Blues saw off the opening pair, the introduction of experienced pairing Daniel Lever and Terry Ottrey quickly saw Seville slip to 2/49 and the door was slightly ajar for an Eagle assault.
Sensing the importance of the moment, Seville premiership stars Leigh Aitkins and Tim Dwyer steadied the ship and guided their team to a strong position of 2/106 at tea.
Dwyer was particularly savage against the bowling of Lever who generally has lead the Eagles’ bowling attack with long, disciplined and economical spells of bowling.
The pair had put on 76 runs before Ottrey claimed the wicket of Aitkins with the score on 125.
Unperturbed by the loss of his partner, Dwyer forged on with the in-form Ranga Yasalal.
Dwyer had structured his innings perfectly as he attacked when the innings was at its strongest while at the fall of Aitkins’ wicket he was able to steady the ship.
Yasalal played a perfect role in support of Dwyer.
When approaching a much deserved century, Dwyer’s scoring slowed, so it was Yasalal who forced the issue with some mighty blows – particularly off the bowling of Lever.
With Dwyer (100) posting a majestical century and Yasalal (54) producing a brutal half century Seville had the Junction boys on their knees at 3/200 in the 61st over.
Dwyer was dismissed shortly after bringing up three figures, and when he needed to kick on, Yasalal followed shortly after.
This triggered a mini collapse as the Eagles forced their way back into the contest courtesy of an inspired spell of bowling from Terry Ottrey.
Ottrey’s consistent line and length, forced the errors from the remaining Seville batsmen as they were intent on increasing the run rate.
With figures of 6/45, Ottrey stemmed the bleeding somewhat and restricted Seville to 245, when a score in excess of 300 looked inevitable.
So, with a chase of 246, Yarra Junction needed a solid start and got anything but as Matt Tilney collected three early wickets to have the Eagles reeling at 3/25 and a long way from the running.
With consolidation needed Daniel Lever joined Cam Spaulding and the pair did their best against some probing bowling and managed to bat to tea to give the Eagles a chance at 3/67.
The pair worked the score to 3/84 but with the required run rate ballooning out against some excellent sustained bowling from Tilney (5/64) and Ishara Amarasinghe (3/44).
The chase failed as the Junction batsmen were dismissed regularly as their urgency increased.
Both Lever and Spaulding (29) fell while trying to force the pace despite some valiant batting from Chippa Robertson and Pat Ford.
The damage had been done as Seville secured back-to-back premierships dismissing the Eagles for 147.
In a fitting ending, club legend Andy Kay polished off the final two wickets to send the Seville army into jubilant celebration.
In RA Finger Trophy action, defending premiers Healesville also made it back to back premierships with a comprehensive display against Yarra Junction.
Junction won the toss and asked Healesville to put a score on the board.
The Bloods immediately put the pressure on the Junction bowlers despite losing their openers relatively early.
Former A Grade captain Stephen James continued his good recent higher grade form with a brisk half century.
With the support of the ever improving Liam Daly, the pair had the Bloods on the brink of blowing the contest wide open.
Even with the loss of James with the score on 108, the Bloods forged forward.
Plugger Davern joined Daly and the pair put together a quick 50 run partnership to have Healesville in the box seat at 3/163.
The quick dismissals of Davern and Daly to the bowling of Daryl Chaproniere saw the game take an unexpected turn.
In an inspired period of play, the Eagles captured 5/31, to have the Bloods teetering at 8/194 and in danger of folding for under 200.
Finals cricket is the domain of experienced campaigners, and none are more seasoned than Bloods captain Allan Pearce.
Pearce (37 n.o.), with the support of youngsters Dillon Kerr and Ryley Howard-Scales, led his side from the front and not only led his side to relative safety but ensured they would compile a challenging total for the Eagles to chase.
Eventually, Healesville were bowled out for 262 in the shadows of stumps.
Graeme Le Brocq (4/43) and Mark Richards (3/59) led from the front for the Eagles with the ball.
Despite the fall of two early wickets, the Eagles progressed their score to 2/39, and would have been confident of building a platform on which to attack the formidable total after tea.
That’s where the fairytale thoughts of an upset ended, and rather abruptly.
After leading his team’s tail with the bat, Allan Pearce wound back the clock with the ball and rolled through the Eagles batting line-up like a hot knife through butter.
With figures of 7/5, Pearce looked as if he would get a wicket with every ball.
With great accuracy and swing both ways, the Junction batsmen had no answers and were dismissed for a dismal 50 runs.
The best game of the weekend came in the C Grade grand final as Wandin pulled off a memorable win after an intriguing contest against Launching Place.
The Bulldogs batted first and battled to give their innings momentum against some quality bowling, particularly from Launch stars Cam Hoare (3/30) and Lochie Winter-Annette (2/50).
With plenty of starts, the Wandin batsmen had the opportunity to capitalise, but with no batsman scoring above 30, they would have been disappointed not to score more than 170, but satisfied with a defendable score on the board.
The Launching Place batting line-up has been one of the strongest in C Grade this season and a chase of 170 would have posed little fear.
With semi-final centurion Hoare (74) again at his best, and well supported by Stuart Parker (35), Launching Place looked well in control of the game.
Unfortunately for Launch, warning signs were evident in its semi-final win as its middle to lower order was unable to capitalise on an impregnable position.
This week it was unable to guide the team to victory after the top order had gained a commanding position.
Jamie Oakley capped off a memorable finals series as his figures of 4/54 bowled Launch out for 154 and his side to a well-earned premiership.
Premiership fancies Powelltown will be licking its wounds after capitulating in the D Grade grand final after dominating the home and away season and day one of this contest.
Powelltown stars Stuart Thompson (5/62) and Benny Dunne (3/32) once again showed the way with dominant displays of bowling to dismiss Yarra Junction for an under par 134 on day one.
Someone forgot to tell young Eagles stars Brad Nightingale (5/27) and Jesse Cook (4/17) as they made a mockery of the underdog tag.
The pair left everything on the field and rolled the unbackable favourites for 51.
Asked to bat again in a vain attempt at a reverse outright result, the Eagles were not going to let this game slip to see out the day on 2/72 and a memorable premiership victory to lift the club’s spirits after tough losses in the top two grades.
Yarra Glen was the first premiers of the season as it accounted for Silvan in the One Day Grade.
Yarra Glen made short work of the Slugs’ strong batting line-up to bowl them out for a disappointing 96.
In reply, they sauntered to victory with seven wickets in hand.
DJ Strachan Shield
Seville 10/245 (Dwyer 100, Yasalal 54, Aitkins 23, Burns 22, Rackham 17, Ottrey 6/45) d Yarra Junction 10/147 (Spaulding 29, Robertson 29, Tilney 5/64, Amarasinghe 3/44, Kay 2/8).
RA Finger Trophy
Healesville 10/262 (James 52, Daly 47, Pearce 37 n.o., Le Broq 4/43, Richards 3/59, Chaproniere 2/69) d Yarra Junction 10/50 (Robinson 13, Pearce 7/5, James 1/8, Kerr 1/15, Howard-Scales 1/18).
C Grade
Wandin 10/170 (Doolan 30, Thorne 24, Hoare 3/30, Winter-Annette 2/50) d Launching Place 10/154 (Hoare 74, Parker 35, Oakley 4/54).
D Grade
Yarra Junction 10/134 (Stanes 33, Thompson 5/62, Dunne 3/32) and 2/72 (Stanes 44) d Powelltown 10/51 (Nightingale 5/27, Cook 4/13).
One Day Grade
Yarra Glen 3/99 (Foster 42 n.o., Beath 16, Glassborow 1/3) d Silvan 10/96 (Murphy 24, Dipietrantonio 23, Davey 3/1, Whelan 3/11).
Under 16
Seville Gold 223 (Caldwell 76 n.o., Page 55, Kear 18, Elliot 5/15) v Seville Blue 3/99 (Smith 44).
Under 14A
Seville 5/175 (Spargo 40 n.o., Garner 37, Bissells 27, Hirst 21, Taeuber 1/17, Nelson 1/27, Saurine 1/29) d Warburton Millgrove 10/88 (McDonald 18, de Varga 17, Hirst 3/10, Spargo 3/17, Garner 1/5).
Under 14B
Launching Place/Woori Yallock 4/168 (Thomas 42 n.o., Ferguson 27, Mead 1/10, Reed 1/10) d Yarra Junction 10/54 (Bourke 3/5).
Under 12
Seville 9/154 (Frankovic 30 n.o., Kay 30 n.o., Hall 2/6, Whelan 2/20) d Yarra Glen Gold 9/146 (Nettlefold 32 n.o., Smith 22, Kay 3/15, Proctor 2/13, Frankovic 2/20).
