Cricket
9 December, 2025
Combine hand Warriors first loss
An exciting second day of round seven action took place in the Horsham Cricket Association A grade competition, including Swifts Great-Western defeating the previously unbeaten West Wimmera Warriors.
With day one not proceeding, Swifts-Great Western and West Wimmera played day two as a one-dayer, where the Warriors elected to bowl first on the Central Park turf in Stawell.
Max McMahon (36), Jesse Eckel (23) and Zach Marrow (20) all made early contributions for the home side, while Rick Oliver hit 28 off 25 balls late in the innings to get Swifts-Great Western to 146 before they were bowled out in the 39th over.
Xavier Bone led the Warriors with the ball as he finished with 3/33, while Brad Alexander (2/20) and Tim Braendler (2/25) each snared two wickets.
In response, West Wimmera reached the 11th over at 2/38 before a middle-order collapse had the visitors in dire trouble at 8/44.
Despite the last-wicket efforts of Jeremy Weeks (27) and Josh Cramer (16 not out), the Warriors were bowled out for 83 in the 28th over, a 63-run win for the home side.
Matt Heffer and Jayden McCartney starred with the ball for the Combine, as they finished with figures of 3/20 and 3/22, respectively.
At Sunnyside, Laharum resumed day two at 5/61 after bowling Lubeck Murtoa out for 91 on day one.
Jason Kannar (25), Matthew Kerr (16) and Jackson Hoffman (10 not out) all made vital contributions as Laharum were bowled out for 92, giving them a one-run lead.
Shannon Reddie was terrific for Lubeck Murtoa with the ball to finish with 5/23.
In their second innings, Mudlarks skipper Cameron Newell led his side with 75 not out, but with Josh Leith (11) being the only other player in double figures, Lubeck Murtoa were bowled out for 101.
Chaminda Gamage backed up his four-wicket haul in the first innings with a 6-36 performance to claim a ten-wicket haul for the match.
Hoffman chimed in with 2/14 in the Demons’ bowling effort.
Chasing 101 for victory, Daniel Griffiths (23) and Gamage (19) added vital runs as Monty Wynne led Laharum with 33 not out to give the Demons a six-wicket victory, bumping them up to second place on the ladder.
Oliver Garth Lindsay (2/20) and Xavier Shevlin (2/35) were the wicket takers for the Mudlarks in the last innings.
Speaking on the performance, stand-in Laharum skipper Daniel Griffiths said the Demons attacked the fourth innings knowing the pitch was difficult to bat on.”
“It was a strange game, pretty low scoring in the first innings,” Griffith said.
“We bowled them out reasonably cheaply for about 100 in the second innings.
“We thought to ourselves, ‘the pitch is going to get us, so we’ve got to play some shots before we get out,’ so we pushed the runs along early on, got the total with only four wickets down in the end, which we were pretty happy with.”
At Horsham City Oval, the Colts resumed their first innings at 4/25 following the Tigers’ 162 on day one.
After an early wicket in the day, Kane Tutchell (73) and Josh Colbert (72) put on a 128-run partnership to help guide the Cotls to a first-innings win before the side was bowled out for 182.
Anderson Brown (3/21) and Joel Plazzer shared the wickets in helping bowl the Colts out.
The Tigers would close the match at 3/71 in their second innings.
Colts captain Jake McLean credited the batting of Tutchell and Colbert in helping produce the comeback win.
“We were in trouble early, but then Colbert and Kane went in and had a good 120-odd run partnership,” McLean said.
“That sealed the game for us, and it was a great batting performance, so I'm very proud of the boys for getting over the line.”
At Jeffcott Oval, Donald Jeffcott resumed their innings at 1/86 in pursuit of St Mary’s 113.
Led by Cooper Anderson’s 73, numerous contributions, including 42 from Sam Postlethwaite and 34 from Koby Westerland, saw the home side claim first-inning points before declaring at 9/248.
For St Mary’s, Nicholas Germano had 2/30 with the ball, while Colby Schmidt had 2/43.
Donald Jeffcott then sent the visitors in to bat again, where they were able to bowl St Mary’s out for 52 to claim an innings and 83-run win.
Hugh Nixon (15) and Nick Toscano (10) provided some resistance to a superb Donald Jeffcott bowling effort, led by 3/4 from Eddie Landwehr and 3/17 from Nicholas Atkins.
At Brim Recreation Reserve, the early dismissal of Tim Crick had the Bullants at 6/28 early on day two following Brim Brim KSH's 105 first innings total.
Despite handy contributions from Phoenix Hopper (19) and Matthew Combe (17), Brim KSH bowled the Bullants out for 64.
Jeremy Preston helped secure the first-innings points with figures of 3/11, following impressive day one bowling from Lachlan McGinniss 2/3 and Tim Bell (2/9).
In the home team’s second innings, Isaac McPherson smashed 18 boundaries to finish with an unbeaten 104 not out before Brim KSH declared at 3/182.
With limited overs to play, the Bullants totalled 1/50 before play stopped, giving Brim KSH the first-innings win.
