Third straight UGSCA A-grade premiership for Pingelly-Noonebin after crushing Wandering in grand final

For the first time in club history, Pingelly-Noonebin won a third straight Upper Great Southern Cricket Association A-grade grand final, with captain Jack Blechynden lifting the premiership cup aloft in front of their home fans. The UGSCA brought their finals forward and scrapped the A-grade preliminary final due to the evolving COVID-19 situation and rise in cases around WA. The top four sides played off in semifinals on Saturday and the two winners progressed to the 2021-22 decider the following day. Pingelly-Noonebin hosted the grand final and faced Wandering, who upset top-ranked team Lake Grace the previous day. After winning the toss Pingelly-Noonebin sent Wandering in to bat and the visitors made a solid start with openers Bryan Hardie and Jacob Schorer combining for 68 runs. Dylan Kirk made the key breakthroughs, trapping Hardie in front for 26 and Schorer followed soon after on 37 from 91 when he was bowled by Kirk. It was tough going from there for Wandering as they fell to 5-106 and could only manage 8-121 from their 45 overs. Lewis Parsons was the only other batter to reach double figures as Jordan Hughes (3-20 from 10 overs), Luke Kirk (2-25) and Dylan Kirk (2-18) put the clamps on. The home side lost Tyson Kirk (23) and Jack Blechynden (5) early in the chase but a 77-run partnership from Tom Blechynden and Dylan Kirk laid the foundations for a hat-trick of flags. Tom Blechynden was dismissed for 39 off 49 balls to end the stand but his side needed only six runs to win and Dylan Kirk, who was named man-of-the-match, finished the job after making 53 not out from 59 balls. Pingelly-Noonebin secured the win in the 34th over for the loss of just three wickets. Winning captain Jack Blechynden said it was a great moment for his club to win another A-grade title. “This is definitely the first time we’ve won three in a row,” he said. “It was special to do it on our home turf. It’s great for the town and great for the club. “A lot of the boys have played in all three, we have a really young and tight-knit group. Our oldest player would have been about 26-27. “We pride ourselves on our fielding, being so young and we are all great mates most of us went to the same primary school. “All three premierships we have won, we’ve chased in the grand final. We backed our bowlers in to restrict them to a small total.” Jack Blechynden praised the performance of Dylan Kirk in the grand final, which capped an outstanding all-round season for Pingelly-Noonebin. In his 13 matches this season Dylan Kirk made 603 runs at an average of 67 and took 11 wickets at an average of 23.3. For Wandering Bill Schorer (1-15), Evan Barrett (1-22) and Bailey Parsons (1-30) were the wicket takers but their side fell well short with the bat.