Cricket: Bunbury head to finals

Bunbury's big weekend of cricket could not have been scripted better.

Leading the scene was the Bunburyand Districts Cricket Association winning through to the final stages of the Country Cup after a couple of barren seasons in the competition.

Bunbury defeated Donnybrook- Blackwood and former winners of the Country Cup, Busselton-Margaret River and Peel, for the right to play in the two-day final carnival in March.

Then there was the completion of the round robin stage of the regional development program, with Bunbury and Busselton-Margaret River to meet in an unofficial final on December 21, together with the visit of two school teams from Perth to play against Bunbury Cathedral Grammar teams at Forrest Park.

And then there was the lifeblood of the sport in the city, the BDCA major league, showing another win for the sentimental favourites, Ang e l o D ’ A g o s t i n o ’ s y o u n g Leschenault, to move the Green Caps in among the big guns in a sixway logjam at the top of the points table.

The remarkable half century run of Leschenault senior citizen Mike Parker finally came to an end but even that was a happy one, with the veteran’s patient 32 in an opening stand of 144 with Tom Buchanan, posting his maiden BDCA major league century, setting the Green Caps on their way to a five-wicket win over Eaton.

There was also the thrill of sharing a brief fifth-wicket stand with son Josh, who was undefeated with 26 when Leschenault passed Eaton’s respectable 210.

On a day in which the bat dominated the ball, highest score of the weekend was Buchanan followed by Eaton opener Troy Shepherd who notched up 94 against the Green Caps, followed by Colts captain Murray Goodwin, 82, and Michael Norris, 79, for Colts against Harvey-Benger, Marist’s Ben Beauglehole’s 65 against Dalyellup Beach and Ben Lagana’s reply of 62 against the champions.

Shining with the ball on the day was Marist’s Wayne Murphy who winkled out four Settlers with his slow medium dibbly-dobblies, Leschenault skipper Mick Newman’s 4-46 against Eaton, and a 4-49 haul for Colts off-spinner Mat Foreman.