THE opening weekend of the Williamstown and District Cricket Association A1 turf grand final was far from decisive.
Wyndhamvale has taken a slight edge over minor premiers Williamstown Imperials at the Bryan Martyn Oval in Newport, but six days is a long time in a game of cricket.
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“We’re pretty happy with our position,” Falcons all-rounder Ryan Radford said. “We’ve got a 100 lead, you’d take that.”
The Falcons were content with 244 off 87.2 overs.
The Imperials were posing the question in the lead-up to the grand final, ‘who is Andrew Ford?’. They never had the opportunity to bowl to the English import during the regular season, but they were forced to make up for that on Saturday as Ford made a superb 112 to be the biggest factor on the first weekend, the opening batsman holding the innings together from start to finish in extreme weather conditions.
“Being from England, he wouldn’t have been used to those hot conditions,” Radford said. “It was a massive effort.”
Ford desperately needed support at the other end. Falcons captain Jay Dolliver occupied the crease early to take the shine off the new ball en route to 16 but it was Lee Veal, the second drop, who would have the most success out in the middle with 62 in a 113-run stand.
Spinner Glen Robson was the pick of the Imperials bowlers with 3-46 off 19 overs, including six maidens.
Jack Haines, with 1-40 off 17.2, took the big wicket of Ford.
The Imperials, led by Daniel Slattery (33), Ashley Royston (26) and Robson (23), stuttered to 8-147 at stumps.
Their progress was stunted by some brilliant bowling from Jake Styles (3-33) and Lance Macdougall (3-35).
WDCA grand finals
A1 turf: Williamstown Imperials 8-147 (D Slattery 33 A Royston 26; J Styles 3-33 L Macdougall 3-35) v Wyndhamvale 244 (A Ford 112 L Veal 62; B Slattery 3-22 G Robson 3-46 M Craig 2-34).
B1 turf: Deer Park Ardeer 306 (G Bennett 97 M Szulikowski 50 M Beljac 40 P Tawaf 34; S Brown 3-46) v Williamstown Congs 81 and 3-40.
B2 turf: Melton South PSCC 118 (D Grero 39; D Croft 5-66 R Bolton 2-9 A Fine 2-20) v Gellibrand 389 (S Buttigieg-Clarke 164 C Kennedy 78 J Bulbeck 33 D Croft 30; A Gusic 5-58 B Landers 2-51 D Grero 2-67) and 1-59 (M Taylor 40no).
C composite: Melton Centrals 108 and 5-103 v Grand United 90.
A matting: Caroline Springs 158 (C Viola 58 T Blackman 39) and 5-175 (G O’Toole 54no M Psaila 45 N Kashyap 27no) v Melton Centrals 109 (V Sohi 7-29 N Kashyap 2-35).
B matting: Caroline Springs 44 (J Forbes-Anthony 99no N Vulic 84 R Shankar 73 D Le-Paez 61 P Singh 27) v Williamstown Imperials 0-23.
C matting: Grand United 43 (J Ralph 178 C Metcher 71 J Edwards 71 MC Dyke 36 T Ralph 27) v Williamstown Colts 202 and 1-9.
