APS cricket: Haileybury College clinches premiership

Spinners Reiley Mark and Josh Sugden and batsmen Josh Walker and Charlie Dowling were among the young guns in school cricket.

The title-winning Haileybury College APS premiership team.

When it comes to school cricket, Haileybury College gets top marks this season.

The Bloods on Saturday clinched the APS First XI premiership with a strong win over Caulfield Grammar.

They finished unbeaten and four points clear on top of the ladder, with Scotch College second on 48, St Kevin’s third on 40 and Wesley fourth on 39.

Caulfield Grammar batted first against Haileybury and put up a competitive 221 off 63 overs, led by the highly-rated Jaxon Binns, who cracked 57 from only 41 balls.

Binns hit 7 fours and 3 sixes before being caught and bowled by emerging off-spinner Reiley Mark.

It was the Richmond Premier Cricket First XI player’s second wicket and he went on to a bag of 5-24 off 22 overs, 12 of them maidens.

Mack Burdett showed fight down the list for the Caulfield team, digging in with 54 off 125 balls, with 7 fours and 2 sixes.

Haileybury lost Hugo Hall-Kahan early in the run chase, but an outstanding innings from Tyler Stewart took it to a five-wicket victory.

Come in spinner: Reiley Mark of Haileybury College.

It was Stewart’s first century in the APS, with the right-hander bringing it up with a pull shot just behind square.

Opener Charles Waring crafted 62 as the Bloods overhauled their target.

Unsurprisingly, Haileybury College had a number of the leading players in the APS series.

Mark collected 23 wickets at 12.35, and of the 147.5 overs he bowled, 51 were maidens.

In the outright win over Geelong Grammar he snared 5-4 off 11 overs and 4-51 off 31.

Skipper Charlie Giles hit three half-centuries on his way to 303 runs at 43.29 and Raheel Bostan made 225 runs at 32.14, with a highest score of 87 against Wesley.

Underlining his potential as an all-rounder, Mark chipped in with 220 at 31.43.

Giles, who played a couple of matches for the Prahran Second XI this season, also took 19 wickets at 14.05.

Spinner Bostan, who is with Premier club Dandenong, nabbed 14 wickets.

There was a number of outstanding players across the series.

Wesley’s Josh Sugden captured 19 wickets with his left-arm orthodox, St Kevin’s College student Ben McMahon also took 19 and Harrison Thompson of Melbourne Grammar had 18 scalps from only five matches, including a haul of 7-42 off 19 overs against St Kevin’s.

Jobe Kennedy (Caulfield Grammar) and Ewen Harley (St Kevin’s) both had 17 wickets.

In the batting, Wesley’s Josh Walker topped the run chart with 380 at 54.29, highlighted by centuries against St Kevin’s and Melbourne Grammar.

Josh Sugden and his Wesley College teammates put in an appeal.

Stylish and patient, the left-hander made his first century in APS First XI last season as a Year 10 student.

Wesley coach Michael Cove says he’s an exciting prospect but football is Walker’s focus; he’s on the books of the Oakleigh Chargers in the NAB League Boys this year.

Surprisingly, he missed selection in the APS team of the year.

Charlie Dowling topped Melbourne Grammar’s run aggregate with 378 runs.

His highest score came against St Kevin’s when he hit 131 in a total of 349.

Will Mazza of St Kevin’s scored 350 runs at 43.75 and his teammate Tom Martin came in with 341 at 37.89, bumped up by his hand of 122 against Geelong College.

Xander Buxton (335) added school runs to the many he’s made at Premier and representative level this season, and Felix Squire showed the way for Caulfield Grammar with 329 runs at 41.13, including a hand of 134 against Geelong College.

Lachlan Zissis was Brighton Grammar’s best batsman with 329 runs at 32.90; Kye Walford did well for Xavier with 328 at 46.86; and Jack Ball’s blazing 149 for St Kevin’s in its second innings against Brighton Grammar lifted him up to 297 runs at 37.13.

Other centurymakers included Ryan Agg of Brighton Grammar (120 against Geelong Grammar), Fraser Hoskins of Wesley College (103 against Carey Grammar) and Sugden, who slugged 106 off 109 balls against Melbourne Grammar last Friday, helping his team recover from 4-17 to make 9-314 (dec).

Walker and Sugden put on 175 for the fifth wicket.

The APS team of the year: Felix Squire (Caulfield Grammar), Lachie Zissis (vc, Brighton Grammar), Will Mazza (St Kevin’s), Charlie Dowling (Melbourne Grammar), Kye Walford (Xavier College), Charlie Giles (c, Haileybury College), Will Townsend (Scotch College), Reiley Mark (Haileybury College), Fraser Hoskins (Wesley College), Josh Sugden (Wesley College), Harrison Thompson (Melbourne Grammar), Ben McMahon (St Kevin’s).

Emerg: Henry Gray (Scotch College), Matthew Dahlsen (Xavier College), Mack Burdett (Caulfield Grammar).