Teens rescue Country Week team status

EXCELLENT performances by Dunsborough teenagers Alex Cooke and Brodie Gould have ensured Busselton-Margaret River will remain in A-Section of Senior Country Week cricket next year.

In last Friday’s relegation final at Rosalie Park, Gould captured 4-46 and Cooke scored an unbeaten 84 as Busselton-Margaret River restricted Esperance to 149 all out (55 overs) and then replied with 4-150 (42 overs) to avoid demotion to B-Section next year.

The No. 1 side also enjoyed a win on Wednesday at Breckler Park after scoring 161 (Lewis Smith 54, Fida Hussain 45) and then dismissing Esperance for 143 (Chris Reagan 4-27, Mat Kent 2-27).

Thursday’s loss to West Pilbara at Murdoch University contained a touch of irony, as former Busselton cricketer Harvey Golding struck 87 not out to lead West Pilbara to a seven-wicket win after Busselton-Margaret River batted first and scored 184 (Brendan Miller, Zoz Saeed and Ben Cox each hitting 30 runs).

In Friday’s A-Section final Albany emerged Country Week victors over Eastern Goldfields in a thriller by just 7 runs.

The highlight of Busselton-Margaret River’s No. 2 side in D-Section last week was the outstanding form of wicketkeeper-batsman Shane Joyce.

On Wednesday at Coker Park, Joyce smashed 142 off 134 balls, and then held four catches, as Busselton-Margaret River scored 5-246 (50 overs) and then contained Bunbury 4 to 9-108 (34.5 overs), with Matty Braid taking 3-23, Bill Cawley 2-21 and Elijah Truscott 2-0.

On Thursday at Alan Edwards Park, Busselton-Margaret River scored 7-249 (Shankar Madhusudan 74, Shane Joyce 56) and then routed Kalgoorlie-Boulder for 99 (Bill Cawley 4-43, Danny Weston 4-16, Ben Cook 2-26).

B-MR qualified for Friday’s D-Section final against West Pilbara at Brittania Reserve before going down by 52 runs.

Elijah Truscott capped an excellent Country Week by taking 3-29 for Busselton-Margaret River, while Bill Cawley and Danny Weston captured two wickets each, as West Pilbara scored 212 and then held Busselton-Margaret River to 160 (Shane Joyce 48, Darcy Carroll 42).

The local T20 competition continued on Saturday with a full round of C-Grade fixtures, while the A-Grade and B-Grade both had a bye due to Country Week.

The biggest winners of the weekend were Vasse, who defeated St Marys and then Nannup to be the only unbeaten side of the day.

Dennis Amour had a great day for Vasse, smashing 59 with 6 sixes in his side’s 3-127 (Jacques Allen 48 not out) to overpower St Marys 6-124 (Matt Snaddon 38no, Jacques Allen 2-20).

Amour repeated his effort in the second game as Nannup scored 5-82 before going down to Vasse 1-83 in just 11.3 overs (Amour 51no with 3 sixes).

The closest game of the day saw Nannup 4-136 (skipper Leigh Guthridge 55no) to just hold off a fast finishing YOBS Academy 6-132 (skipper Jamie Liston 64no) by 4 runs.

In other games, Yallingup-Oddbods hit 4-132 (Ross Ligtermoet 64, Ethan Piggot 39) to defeat St Marys 7-113 (Robbie Trebell 50 off 32 balls), Cowaramup totalled 5-142 (Ben Kirkham 50, Sam Power 3-31) to beat YOBS Academy 8-91 (Matt Driscoll 50, Mark Barrett-Lennard 3-10) and Cowaramup made 98 (Darcy Carroll 4-14) before being overtaken by Dunsborough, 4-100 in 13.2 overs.