ST MARY’S wasn’t meant to make the DDCA one-day finals, in fact the Saints as a club hadn’t won a senior premiership in a decade heading into this season.
But the Saints earned a chance to play in the postseason and made the most of it, winning through the semi-finals in the final round and then coming from the back of the field to make the grand final against favourites Silverton.
The Saints, led by first-year captain Ben Graham, went on to beat Silverton in a rain-interrupted match last Sunday week to claim the club’s first senior premiership in 10 years, making 8-161 to Silverton’s 156 all out.
Rain interrupted the match on the Saturday so it had to be completed on Sunday, which added a little pressure to the Saints’ run chase.
In typical one-day league fashion, there was some uncertainty about whether the Saints had passed the winning total or not so they actually had two chances to run out on the ground and celebrate the premiership.
“It came down to the end and we had plenty of wickets in hand but were running out of time so we had to swing and run,” Graham said.
“We got two boundaries at the end and the boys ran out celebrating because we thought we had won.
“But we were told we should play another ball which was hit for four to third man which gave us a five-run win.
“So we started celebrating and ran out there again.”
The win was especially important to Graham, who took on the captaincy from his stepdad John Guterman at the start of the season.
Guterman plays alongside both his stepsons with younger brother Josh Graham also in the side.
“He said the captaincy was doing his head in so he passed it on to me,” Ben Graham said.
“The best thing about the whole day that was mum and my sister were on sidelines for the whole game and also when we were celebrating I turned around and get a big hug from my stepdad.”
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