Hoppers Crossing’s homegrown opener, Luke Goegan, brought up his first senior century in Saturday’s stirring 32-run victory over McKinnon on the road in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association senior division at McKinnon Reserve.
Goegan has played senior cricket for more than a decade with the Cats, starting out in the sixths while still in the juniors and graduating through the grades.
While he has played countless big innings for the Cats, the ton had always eluded him.
He reached the 90s on three occasions, including 99 not out in the seconds in 2009-10 and 96 not out in the firsts in 2010-11.
It was starting to seem like lady luck was not on Goegan’s side until he raised the bat with a match-winning 104 against McKinnon.
Throw in a first half-century at the club to new recruit Duleeka Thisakuttige (57) and 33 to Ryan Latham, and the Cats had an imposing total of 4-213 from their allotted 40 overs.
McKinnon was bowled out for 181 after three wickets apiece to Greg Kennedy (3-29), Dinesh Daminda (3-25) and Mitch Ellis (3-38).
In west A1, Wyndhamvale claimed a comfortable first innings win over
St Andrews Footscray after being made to sweat in the second innings before denying the Saints’ audacious bid for an outright.
The undefeated Falcons posted a meagre 79 in tricky conditions on day one but rolled the Saints for just 55.
The Falcons left themselves open to an outright loss by posting 116 in the second innings, a lead of 140.
They had 26 overs to bat late on day two and finished with 7-105.
Jay Dolliver was the stand-out for the Falcons with nine wickets for the match.
Point Cook defended its meagre 109 after Raj Sandhu snared 7-22 off 17.1 overs to have Newport-Digman all out for 49. It was the Warriors’ first win of the summer.
In west B1, Seabrook played a double-header of one-day matches across the weekend and lost both.
The Saints suffered a heavy 51-run defeat to West Newport on Saturday before losing a thriller to top side Deer Park by five wickets on Sunday.
