DDCA: Springvale South defeats Buckley Ridges in tense Turf 1 grand final
After losing its five previous Turf 1 grand finals Springvale South defeated Buckley Ridges in an absorbing decider at Alex Nelson Reserve.
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After a decade of heartache, Springvale South has returned to the top of the perch of DDCA Turf 1, winning a historic ninth premiership after defeating a gallant Buckley Ridges at Alex Nelson Reserve on Saturday.
The Bloods’ total of 8-225 from 45 overs was too much for the Ridges, who were all out in the final over for 197.
Paceman and star recruit Josh Dowling – who finished with 4-49 from 11.4 overs – won the prestigious Damien Fleming Medal as man of the match, presumably shading teammate Jackson Sketcher.
It was an emotion-charged win for the Bloods, who had lost five grand finals since last saluting back in 2010-11.
There had also been the loss of club legend Peter Mathison’s wife, Marie, as well as the death 15 months ago of former president and player Peter Lawler after a long battle with cancer.
And during the week, popular clubman and long-serving player Ben Goodey had lost his mother.
Times have been tough at Harold Road.
The Bloods won the toss and decided to bat on a wicket that look conducive to runs. Ryan Quirk (33) and Mitch Forsyth (14) put on 42 for the first wicket against a Buckley attack that began nervously.
Hussain Ali was brought on and soon found a line and length that made scoring tough.
Spinner Matt Goodwright came to the bowling crease earlier than expected and with guile and subtle variations of pace had the first wicket when Forsyth lashed out at a ball that did him for flight, holing out to mid-wicket after a lusty swipe.
Slick Davies was bought back into the attack and when he found the outside edge of Quirk’s blade, the Ridges were back in the game with the score at 2-64.
Jordan Wyatt was joined at the wicket by Sketcher and the pair batted beautifully.
They ran well between wickets and struck any loose balls to the boundary as they put on a century stand.
Wyatt was the first to go, holing out to deep square leg off paceman Shivam Patel for 59 from only 64 deliveries.
He put three balls to the boundary and three over them. He is a class player.
Blade Baxter was run out after only one delivery and when Sketcher was caught by Davies at long off from the bowling of Ali, the Ridges had roared back into the match, claiming 3-9. Sketcher – who has taken his game to another level this summer – was gone for 59 from 62 balls with five boundaries and three big sixes. What a knock.
Akshat Buch gave the innings a nice closing touch, making 24 from better than a run at ball as the Bloods took the total to 225, asking the Ridges to score at an even five runs per over.
Ali was the pick of the bowlers. With a run-up with more short steps than the cha-cha, he finished with 3-31 from his nine overs, and was the only multiple wickettaker for the Ridges.
The fourth-placed Bloods – who had snuck into the four and were effectively only 15 minutes away from losing to North Dandenong late in the season, shunting them out of the finals – had put up a terrific target.
The huge crowd on hand was soon shocked as the vaunted Buckley Ridges top-order was shredded, collapsing to 3-4.
Brayden Sharp’s direct-hit run-out of Zafar Sheikh was the catalyst for the carnage. Former Sri Lankan Test player Mahela Udawatte, a star this season, lasted one ball, nicking Bloods paceman Dowling and being well caught by Wyatt in the slips.
When Buch trapped semi-final centurymaker and Ridges skipper Ben Wright LBW for one, the game seemed all but over.
Jayson Hobbs and Troy Aust had other ideas, breathing life back into the grand final with a gutsy, hard-fought rearguard partnership.
After a period of consolidation, the pair began a reconstruction of the innings.
Playing diligently while at the same time ticking the scoreboard over, they added 73 for the fourth wicket before Hobbs holed out to the longest boundary on the ground at deep square leg.
Forsyth held his nerve and the catch to dismiss Hobbs for 37 off the bowling of Jarryd Straker.
Champion allrounder Davies entered the game in desperate search for the only thing missing from his impressive cricketing resume – a Turf 1 premiership medal.
He and a well-established Aust kept the required run rate at a difficult yet not unachievable ratio.
Aust passed 50 and looked likely to help pull off an improbable victory if he could bat through the innings.
Needing to find three overs from a bowler, Bloods skipper Paul Hill turned to Sketcher, who nailed the important wicket of Aust for a tough-as-teak 58.
Aust, like several other batsmen on the day, was caught only metres from the fence by Straker, causing delirium under the Bloods marquee, where what seemed like the whole club was positioned.
It was now left to Davies and Ben Watson if the Ridges were to win the game.
With no margin for error, they planted some very long balls on to Harold Road as the steadily increasing run rate was becoming an issue. It was rising at a rate similar to the anxiety levels of Springvale South supporters.
With six overs remaining and the target within sight (albeit at almost 10 per over), Hill turned the ball over to his two most experienced bowlers in Dowling and Baxter to see his side home.
When Watson drilled a high ball down the throat of Forsyth in the deep – he held the catch with a coolness dwarfing the moment – it seemed a bridge too far. Watson swung lustily getting 29 from only 20 balls.
Goodwright ramped Dowling to fine leg and could not have hit the ball any better only for Sharp to race a few metres and pluck a beauty at fine leg soon after.
The flag was within grasp for the Bloods.
The innings finished as it had started with a direct-hit run-out to deliver the Bloods their cherished flag.
That man Forsyth fired an 80m missile to rattle the stumps at the nonstriker’s end, leaving a diving Wes Nicholas short of his ground and thus denying Davies a deserving half-century.
As the ecstatic Bloods players were swamped by their delighted supporters, Davies cast a dejected figure.
Fittingly, the winning cup was presented to the Bloods by Sandra Lawler, the wife of their much loved Pete, who was a driving force behind the record-breaking flag.
President Jason Quirk and club legend Craig Slocombe, the holders of nine Turf 1 premierships between them, were bought to tears thinking of their great mate, embracing as the enormity of the win sunk in.
The Bloods are a remarkable club. Finalists 18 times in 21 seasons, their ninth flag puts them one above Buckley Ridges for the most by any club.
Quirk said: “For Pete upstairs, it’s for him. We deserved one. We have lost five. You can’t win them unless you make them. It is going to be a massive night for us.’’
Dandenong District Cricket Association, Turf 1 grand final, Saturday, March 26
Springvale South 8-225 J Sketcher 59 J Wyatt 59 R Quirk 33 H Ali 3/31 def Buckley Ridges 197 T Aust 58 MD Davies 49* J Hobbs 37 B Watson 29 J Dowling 4/49 at Alex Nelson Reserve
Premiership team: Ryan Quirk, Mitch Forsyth, Jordan Wyatt, Jackson Sketcher, Blade Baxter, Brayden Sharp, Akshat Buch, Paul Hill (captain), Kyle Martin, Josh Dowling, Jarryd Straker, Liam Hamilton
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