Thrilling match for noble first victory

NOBLE Park made hard work of its first win for the Victorian Sub District Cricket Association season on Saturday, sneaking past Bayswater with one wicket to spare in a thriller.
Resuming at 1/15 in reply to Bayswater’s 194, Andrew O’Meara and Karl Brown took the score past 50 before O’Meara was out lbw for 18.
Paul Hill and Brown had added a further 38 before Hill was caught for 9.
When Brown (55) was dismissed the next over the game was evenly poised with the home side 4/97, but Rod Douthie and Dean Edmunds took the total to 4/110 at the break.
The resumption saw a further 24 added before Douthie was adjudged lbw for 32 with the total at 5/134.
It was 5/135 when Edmunds was caught for 5 just four balls later.
When Michael Todd was dismissed without scoring, Noble Park was at 7/141 with another 54 runs required.
Sanj Weerasinghe smashed a quickfire 38 before presenting a simple caught and bowled chance when the total was 178.
And Matt Crozier was out soon after for 6, leaving the last pair of Lance Baptist (17 not out) and Sean Schubert (2 not out) to knock off the last eight runs and steer Noble Park to its first victory of the summer.
Meanwhile, the club’s second XI finished 36 runs short of Bayswater’s 229, dismissed for 193.
Darren Seccull top-scored with 50, with valuable support from Dave Parker (38) and Shane Smith (35).
The thirds were dismissed for 115 in reply to Bayswater’s 167, with Darren Wilcox (30) and Ben Carmody (17) the only batsman to get over 15 runs.
The fourth XI was dismissed for a measly 49, which Bayswater managed to reach with the loss of only one wicket.