Great start for Upper Great Southern Cricket Association as first team open with two victories at country week

Upper Great Southern Cricket Association’s top team enjoyed a marvellous start to their A-section country week campaign with clinical victories over Peel Country A and Geraldton A. Playing in pool A, they racked up two top-quality wins despite Monday’s game against Geraldton being shifted at the last minute to a hard wicket in Joondalup, with the Richardson Oval in South Perth being underwater and unplayable. Skipper Bailey Parsons was delighted with his side’s early progress at the tournament in Perth, which runs from January 18-23. “It’s been a whole-team effort,” he said. “The batting, bowling and fielding has all gone really well. “The contributions have been spread right across the team.” In round two against Geraldton, a four-wicket haul for Ben McMillan and three scalps for Kalan Joyce pinned their opponents to the crease and saw them dismissed for 175. In response, Uppers endured a mixed start, Joyce going for five and Ben Sherry for a duck, but Perrin Quartermain was solid for his 36 and Arron Quartermaine kept the ball rolling with 32 off 24 balls. Kendal Ballard’s 52 was a quickfire knock of 41 balls, which included five fours and three sixes, but his dismissal left Uppers relying on the tail and biting their nails on 8-170. However, Mitchell Smith was not going to make a crisis out of a drama, and his unbeaten 18 brought his side to 8-176. Lewis Parsons stayed with Smith, surviving 10 balls and scoring the winning run. It was not as close as that when Uppers took on Peel on Sunday. They put Peel into bat and quickly made inroads, as Perrin Quartermaine caught opener Chris Cole for five, but they were held up by the second pair who had moved the score on to 68 before Daniel Baker was dismissed by McMillan. A mini collapse saw two more men fall with the score on 76 but Matthew Mills, coming in at number seven dispatched the Uppers’ bowling to all corners. His marvellous unbeaten 82 came off 84 balls and included seven fours and two sixes. Last man Max Rawson stayed with him for 28 off 57 balls for a ninth-wicket partnership, which brought 88 runs and a challenging Peel total of 200. Not to be outdone, Uppers set about the task with Perrin Quartermaine firing a steady 33 while opening the innings. However, it was Sherry who was the toast of the chasers with a brilliant unbeaten 85 that did the lion’s share of the work and required only 20 from Parsons and minor contributions from elsewhere in the order to take Uppers to 6-201. Parsons, with his 3-11 with the ball, was the best of the Uppers’ bowlers, but Smith, Joyce and McMillan took two wickets apiece. Jacob Schorer snaffled three victims from behind the stumps. The Uppers second team playing in E-section were well beaten by Busselton-Margaret River in their opening game but recovered to dispatch Esperance E in their round two pool B clash on Monday. Chasing a mammoth Busselton-Margaret River tally of 7-267, Uppers lasted their 50 overs but couldn’t match the required rate, stumbling to 9-180 in reply. Blake Edgerton-Warburton was their main man with the bat, his 59 coming off 88 balls. Henry Blechnyden backed him up with 29 off 47 balls to be next best. In round two Uppers opted to bat and the decision paid off as they racked up 9-295 with Rhett Ballard scoring 50 and Darcy Andrews an unbeaten 46. Brock Pockran and Kieran Langridge grabbed 43 runs apiece, but it was Andrews who put the oomph into the lower order with his effort which came off only 21 balls. Esperance were all out for 109, with Sam Wakefield’s 39 after being second-last man in, being the only contribution of note. David Head had a good day with the ball, taking 3-14 off five overs.