Simmons steals show as Harwood is through to grand final

HARWOOD produced a clinical display fitting of finals cricket to bury the hopes of Westlawn at Ellem Oval yesterday.

CRCA match between Westlawn and Harwood at Ellem Oval on Saturday. Harwood's Geoff Simmons during the match. Photo Debrah Novak / The Daily Examiner. Picture: Debrah Novak

HARWOOD produced a clinical display fitting of finals cricket to bury the hopes of Westlawn at Ellem Oval yesterday.

The two-day encounter started with a bang, Geoff Simmons hitting Nathan Blanch for six off the first ball of the match.

From then on it was a disciplined effort as Harwood batted all day Saturday and into yesterday morning to take Westlawn out of the game before they'd even put the pads on.

Harwood finished with 264, Simmons and Ben McMahon both scoring 84 while Blanch toiled on bravely, claiming 4-111 off 30 overs.

"I felt everyone of them," Blanch said of his 180 balls bowled as he watched his teammates chase the total.

"I felt sore this morning."

Westlawn's chase got off to a horror start with Hayden McMahon removing Christian Buggy without scoring.

Westlawn's woes continued with man of the match Ben McMahon (3-57 off 17) helping reduce them to 7-63 with skipper Charlie Amos (81) running out of partners.

It was a vintage knock from Amos who combined with Pat Vidler (45) to put on 97 for the eighth wicket.

But a sharp Glenn Scarffe catch to remove Amos put paid to any hopes Westlawn had, eventually falling 81 runs short.

GDSC PREMIER LEAGUE - PRELIMINARY FINAL

WESTLAWN v HARWOOD
Venue: Ellem Oval
Toss: Harwood Cricket Club

Harwood Innings
GJ Simmons c B Cotten b O'Toole 84
L Harradine c Fletcher b N Blanch 4
N Ensbey c Fletcher b N Blanch 8
MA Ensbey c Amos b JA Blanch 28
BG McMahon c Amos b O'Toole 84
DD Durrant c Fletcher b N Blanch 10
MN Young b Vidler 0
G Scarffe b O'Toole 24
HJ McMahon c Fletcher b O'Toole 12
L Many b N Blanch 1
TG McMahon not out 4
Extras (b 0, lb 3, w 1, nb 1) 5
TOTAL (85.2 overs) 264

FoW: 1-27 (Harradine) 2-49 (N Ensbey) 3-84 (M Ensbey) 4-173 (Simmons) 5-215 (B McMahon) 6-219 (Young) 7-226 (Durrant) 8-245 (H McMahon) 9-250 (Many) 10-264 (Scarffe)

Bowling: Not Available

Westlawn Innings
C Buggy lbw HJ McMahon 0
SM Wilson c TG McMahon b Scarffe 4
R Cotten c HJ McMahon b Many 14
BJ Inmon b BG McMahon 0
D Amos c Scarffe b Durrant 81
M Fletcher c TG McMahon b BG McMahon 0
IM O'Toole b BG McMahon 9
B Cotten b Many 6
PJ Vidler run out 45
N Blanch not out 7
JA Blanch c Scarffe b Durrant 1
Extras (b 4, lb 7, w 2, nb 3) 16
TOTAL (63.5 overs) 183

FoW: 1-0 (Buggy) 2-12 (Wilson) 3-18 (Inmon) 4-36 (R Cotten) 5-38 (Fletcher) 6-54 (O'Toole) 7-63 (Cotten) 8-160 (Vidler) 9-176 (Amos) 10-183 (Blanch)

Bowling: HJ McMahon 6-2-8-1, G Scarffe 8-3-9-1, BG McMahon 17-5-57-3, L Many 17-3-45-2, MN Young 8-0-28-0, L Harradine 5-1-19-0, DD Durrant 2.5-0-6-2.

Result: Harwood won by 81 runs

Originally published as Simmons steals show as Harwood is through to grand final