How Mackay’s Norths Cricket Club secured another one-day grand final victory

Norths are once again on top of Mackay Cricket’s one-day second grade competition, defeating Walkerston at Harrup Park.

Norths Cricket Club defeated Walkerston Cricket Club in Mackay Cricket's second grade one-day grand final at Harrup Park. Picture: Norths Cricket Club Facebook.

Norths Cricket Club are once again atop the Mackay Cricket second grade mountain, as they secured their third consecutive one-day premiership.

They reigned victorious over a worthy opponent in Walkerston, winning by seven wickets on Jack Lancaster Oval.

“It’s a real club effort, a lot of guys have been a part of this team throughout the year to help make it happen,” Norths skipper Ash Murphy said.

“We had a great group of supporters down there as well cheering us on from the sidelines.”

It was their performances with the ball early that put the team well on top, as they reduced Walkerston to 4/13 early in the piece as Rhys Penfold did the damage, including dismissing the dangerous Russell Deguara.

“There was a bit of life in the pitch after the rain we’ve had, and young Rhys has been bowling the house down in the second half of the year,” Murphy said.

“He paired up with Robbie (Brett) who just blocked it up really well and Rhys was able to get the rewards.”

The fightback came further down the order from Walkerston, with Lance Ryan (36), Jacob Thompson (31) and Jacob Christensen (32) all producing good knocks to get their side to a defensible total of 158.

“We let them slip away a little bit there, they’re really good cricketers, Lance is probably the best over-50s player in town and well respected by us,” Murphy said.

“We were happy to be able to rein them in by the end.”

Penfold finished with figures of 4/31, while Brett and Murphy took two apiece.

From there it was the batters that took over, with Murphy himself picking up a quickfire 24 (10) at the top of the order.

However, Walkerston struck back through Malkeet Singh and Jordan Gray-Knight to have Norths 3/30 and having plenty to think about.

“We got off to a bit of a flier and then myself and a couple of other lads came and went within a couple overs,” he said.

However, Mark Le Bherz (73* off 104) and Matthew Herring (45* off 47) put together a monster partnership to see their side home in comfortable fashion, with 10.5 overs and seven wickets to spare.
“Matty and Mark were fantastic, they stuck in there and put the bad balls away and kept the good ones out,” he said.

“They ran hard and they made Walkerston work, it was really good.”

Murphy said the victory was “just reward” for the season as a whole, with Norths taking out the minor premiership with just two losses to their name.

“This is a really strong team that bats all the way down to 10 or 11, we’ve got guys down there that could be opening, it gives us more freedom up the top to play without fear.”

Originally published as How Mackay’s Norths Cricket Club secured another one-day grand final victory