Upper Great Southern Cricket Association celebrates as second team wins E-section grand final at country week

The Upper Great Southern’s second side which contested senior country week’s E-section returned home from Perth in triumph after a winning campaign. They crunched Busselton-Margaret River in their grand final, cruising to a 10-wicket victory after putting their opponents to the sword and dismissing them for a paltry 81. Darcy Andrews made the most of some haphazard batting to claim 4-15 and Stewart Wright was just as impressive to finish with 3-6. Brock Pockran (45no) and Rhett Ballard (29no) made sure their teammates could put their feet up, knocking off the required runs in 15 overs. Pockran’s knock included three sixes. The semifinal against Wyalkatchem was a more testing affair, with Uppers defending their tally of 177. Rhett Ballard was their best with 39 from 89 balls, playing the anchorman as several teammates got starts but were unable to kick on. A late order collapse as Wyalkatchem gave chase eased Uppers’ nerves as they went from looking good at 5-150 to all out for 160. Andrews was again a demon with the ball, taking 5-34 in the 17-run victory. They opened their campaign on January 18 against Busselton-Margaret River, running out of overs and batters as they chased 7-267. Blake Edgerton-Warburton was Uppers’ top scorer with 59 but the response ran out of gas at 9-180 after their 50 overs. They were much more in control the following day as they dispatched Esperance for 109 having set them a mark of 9-295. Openers Pockran (43) andRhett Ballard (50) set the standard with Kieran Langridge (43) and Andrews (46no) also finding good runs. A five-wicket win over South Midlands was secured in round three, Lewis Parsons taking three scalps to leave Uppers chasing 132. They got there with five wickets down with Edgerton-Warburton striking 42 runs off 43 balls to knock off the required runs with help from Henry Blechynden (25), Dane Angwin (24no) and Stewart Wright (20no). That put them second in the pool and matched them with pool A leaders Wyalkatchem in the semifinal.