All eyes on imports as reigning champs take first win

REIGNING A-Grade premiers Dunsborough made a successful start to the new cricket season when they defeated a spirited young St Marys team by six wickets at Dunsborough Playing Fields on Saturday.

Following a drenching of the wicket on Wednesday night the game looked unlikely to go ahead, until several days of hard work by curator Chook Lyon created a playable surface by midday on game day.

Put into bat, St Marys started soundly under new captain Zoz Saeed (37), with newcomer David Robertson also looking a good prospect, before losing a steady stream of wickets to be 9-65.

A valiant last-wicket partnership of 45 between Peter Grygorcewicz and Ryley Barrow took Saints up to 110 when the final wicket fell.

Kiwi import Anthony Quinn had an outstanding start in Australia with figures of 4-12 off 10 overs, while Harrison Sutherland and Mark Natale each took two wickets for Dunsborough.

A solid 45 off 56 balls from Cain Reynolds helped Dunsborough home by six wickets with more than 20 overs to spare.

At Margaret River a great contest took place between the southern clubs before Hawks emerged victorious over Cowaramup.

All the attention was on international player Nathan Coulter-Nile who grabbed 3-19 on debut for the Bulls, while Shane Joyce (49), Grant Garstone (46) and Henry Shawcross (43) made the most of their chances to help Margaret River Hawks post an excellent 208 all out batting first.

Legspinner Hugh Mugford took 4-47 in his first appearance for Cowaramup.

Chasing 209 to win, the Bulls started promisingly enough with import Aayush Patel (35) leading the way, before Margaret River’s spin kings found their footing.

All 10 wickets fell to the slow men, Danny Weston and Peter Crimp claiming three wickets each and Rumesh Silva chiming in with 4-17 as Cowaramup were contained to 136 all out.

At Bovell Park, Vasse also got their season off to a positive start with a convincing victory over Yallingup-Oddbods.

Another new face in Simon Harkness led the way with 51 runs as Vasse posted 9-157 from 50 overs batting first, while Haig Colombera (2-21 off 10 overs) was the pick of the YOBS attack.

YOBS responded with 119 all out, a total which included 26 runs from first-gamer Darcy Ingle and a spirited last-wicket stand of 25 runs between Matty Braid and Peter Vrankovich.

Vasse displayed plenty of depth in their attack with six different bowlers claiming wickets, including debutant Ross Kettlewell with 2-11.

In B-Grade games, Yallingup-Oddbods posted 9-176 off 45 overs against Vasse at Barnard Park, Josh Jenkins striking 46 not out.

Vasse just failed to get up in reply when they responded with 9-165 off 45 overs, Nathan Pell striking 42 runs in a promising comeback to B-grade ranks.

The other B-grade game saw Dunsborough post 9-200 versus St Marys at Dunsborough, with Darby Tas hitting a fine 62 off 62 balls and skipper Cam Morris contributing 43 runs.

Karl Clively took 4-33 for St Marys, who were bundled out for 99 in reply, with Floyd Donnan taking three scalps for Dunsborough.

The newly expanded 9-team C-Grade competition got under way with victories to St Marys (6-150) over YOBS Academy (9-149), Laurence York claiming 5-10 and Mitch Barrow hitting 49 runs for Saints, Dunsborough White (4-212) comprehensively accounting for Vasse (82 all out) with Simon Smith hitting 89 for Dunsborough White and Richard Atkinson being the only player to reach double figures for Vasse, Cowaramup (146 all out) scraping home by 4 runs over Margaret River Hawks (142 all out), and Yallingup-Oddbods (6-122) getting up to beat Nannup (120 all out) with Seve Toovey (32 not out) enjoying a solid debut for YOBS.