Kew wins second VSDCA premiership in three seasons, defeating Spotswood
Against the odds, with inspiration from Collingwood, Kew claimed the VSDCA North-West premiership as its spin twins destroyed Spotswood.
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“For us this is a bit of an underdog story.”
Kew is back on top of the VSDCA after a stunning North-West group premiership win over Spotswood on Sunday.
Despite losing a host of First XI players, the Blues were a force throughout the season and claimed a 43-run victory at Don McLean Reserve to deny the Woodsmen back-to-back titles.
It’s the club’s second flag in three seasons after winning the North-East group in 2021-22 and redemption for 2020-21 when it suffered a shock loss to Werribee in the last North-West decider.
A five-wicket haul to bowl Kew to victory earned Welsh import Sam Pearce the Batty Medal for best-on-ground.
Coach Seb Contos said it was a proud day for the club.
“Going into the season we were up against it in terms of losing quality players and people from our club but we’re lucky Kew is a well resourced place,” he said.
“We’ve had some amazing people step up this season and we’ve been well led on the field by David Wildsmith.
“Full credit to the playing group, and not just the First XI, everyone has been a part of it and we’ve had a lot of support.”
Kew won its qualifying final by three wickets and its preliminary final by just four runs, reminiscent of Collingwood’s run to the AFL premiership.
“Wildy and myself are both big Collingwood fans so we took a lot of inspiration from that and Craig McRae,” Contos said.
“Obviously it’s a different ball game playing club cricket and we wanted to make sure our players were well supported and enjoying their cricket and we’ve got the ultimate reward.
“Credit to Altona and Hoppers Crossing, we had some really close games that were a flip of the coin and could have gone either way.
“We took a lot of confidence from those wins, being able to win those tight moments is the perfect preparation for a grand final.”
With Kew on the ropes at 7-92, James Clark (72) and Michael Letson (47) dug it out of trouble with a 113-run eighth-wicket partnership.
Chasing the Blues’ 221 Spotswood was looking strong at 1-93 before losing 3-21, including top-scorer Taylor Tatterson’s (61) unusual obstructing the field dismissal.
The Woodsmen then lost their final six wickets for 37 runs as Sam Pearce (5-67) and Jack Carroll (3-40) ripped in.
“James Clark and Mike Letson showed a lot of courage, in a grand final runs are always hard to come by, but they batted beautifully,” Contos said.
“We got to Saturday night thinking we’ve got enough on the board, we know we field really well and we can apply some pressure.
“(Tatterson) was batting beautifully but he went down for a sweep and stopped the ball from rolling onto the stumps with his hand.
“We wrestled the momentum back, from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon there were a lot of swings in momentum.
“They were probably in the box seat with the bat but we were able to take a few wickets either side of lunch and our spinners bowled beautifully.
“Jack Carroll and Sam Pearce have had ice in their veins in the big moments and they got the job done for us again.”
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Captain Dan Schuppan was Spotswood’s best with the ball, taking 4-77 on day one, while Sandeep Mandalika snared 3-47.
Meanwhile, Brunswick is celebrating Second XI and Third XI Division 1 premierships after defeating Werribee in both grades by eight wickets and 28 runs respectively.
The Tigers turned the tables in Fourth XI Division 1, winning by five runs.
Hoppers Crossing snared the Third XI and Fourth XI Division 2 titles with an outright six-wicket win over Williamstown and three-wicket win over Taylors Lakes.
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