Premier Update

To conclude the first half of the season, the Sunshine Coast Scorchers have secured the top spot on the two day ladder. Toombul are behind on 13 points followed closely by the Gold Coast in third place. With lots of rain around over the last month, every point will prove vital for the backend of the season in the Men’s First Grade Competition.

With only two games showing results in round 12, this was headlined by a thriller between Redlands and Valleys. Following last Sunday’s 14 overs of play where Valleys finished on 1/52, they continued to score at a fast rate. Hitting unbeaten centuries, captain Hugh Weibgen (133*) and Dylan McLachlan (100*) led their side to 2/282 before declaring. A few more runs could have changed the trajectory of this match. Redlands came out firing with opener Liam Smith crunching 109 off 127 deliveries. Sam Heazlett’s saw the ball early as the left hander struck 49 off 38. This powered his team across the line as the Tigers won by 3 wickets.

The second result for the weekend involved Sandgate-Redcliffe taking on South Brisbane. Aryan Jain continued his strong start from Day 1 turning his 31* into 122* off 182 deliveries, batting through the entire innings. Souths skipper, Lucky Peterson hit a quickfire ton, finishing on 111 (115) as the team declared at 2/331. Sandgate’s attempted chase was led by Daniel Seaton who played a solid innings before being dismissed on 73 as his team fell for just 204. Taking 4/48 (14), Sam Geyer played an important role as Souths secured a win by 127 runs.

In the Ipswich and Wynnum fixture, Llewellyn converted his start into a big innings of 102 (125) as well. Harry Wood also showed support striking 76* (83) having continued his strong form from a summer abroad. The Sea Eagles bowling line up was guided by Sukhveer Singh’s 3fa as 7 bowlers were rotated. Setting a target of 6/296 declared, the Hornets just put on enough to draw the match. A good day for opening batters, Wynnum’s Jed Wilson made a well-timed 105 (154) and Henry Taylor chipped in with 65 (90) as the Sea Eagle’s ended the game on 6/285.

Gold Coast had a disappointing end to round 12 as they were just one wicket away from securing an important win. After bashing 7/316 declared in the first innings, the Dolphins were certainly in a good position with nearly all of the batters contributing. Bailey Sewell (79*) and Brad Munro (71) both played the middle order role perfectly. With early wickets, Norths looked like they were going to struggle before Blake Maher struck 80 (115). Four wickets for Connor Brown and three for George Garrat restricted Norths to 9-179 as the close game ended in a draw.

Certainly a batter friendly wicket at Wep Harris Oval as 474 runs were scored on the final day of UQ vs Toombul. Beginning the first session on 1/72, Toombul’s Lachlan Hearne put on a massive total of 163 (234) to bring up his first ton of the season. Across all matches, the QLD Bulls athlete has already struck 1280 runs for the season. After Toombul declared on 8-338, the runs certainly did not stop there. Angus Lovell continued his form with 85 (83) and Jack Clayton (99 off 75) fell agonisingly short of a ton. The Students finished on 4-208 as the run fest ended in a draw.