Echuca opening batter Curtis Townrow sent Goulburn Murray Cricket officials scurrying for the record books after a sublime batting performance against Echuca South on Saturday.
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Townrow pounded an unbeaten 255 off 147 balls as the ladder-leader piled up an awesome 6-359 off its 45 overs.
His breathtaking innings contained 26 fours and 14 sixes — 188 runs of his final score — during his three-hour stay at the batting crease.
In reply Echuca South fell for 50 in just 23.4 overs with bowling spearhead Harry Ripon making his A-grade debut, picking up the bowling honours with 3-12 off eight overs.
- Reigning premier Kyabram Fire Brigade’s push to get back into finals calculations suffered a blow with a loss to top four side BLU, despite a top bowling spell from Jack Donnell.
Without skipper and star batter Brenton Campbell and all-rounder Rob Salter, the Flames, chasing BLU’s 181, were dismissed for 102 in 33 overs.
Donnell took 6-29 off nine overs in BLU’s innings.
Flames veteran opener Danny Kent top-scored with 18 but only three of his teammates got into double figures.
Chances of the the Flames defending the flag they won last year are rapidly fading and they face a massive test against Moama this Saturday at Kyabram’s Northern Oval.
- Cooma failed to a post a winning score in its clash with Nondies Cohuna, dismissed for 124.
Peter Fawcett’s late knock of 28 did save his side from a much lower total after several Cooma batters had frustratingly failed to build on starts.
Nondies' Xavier Wishart and Mitch Treacy with 4-24 and 3-8 respectively did the damage with the ball.
In reply Nondies covered Cooma’s score in 38 overs for the loss of four wickets with opener Sam O’Shea, with a half-century, guiding the home team to victory.
New ball bowler Sam Langley bowled tightly for Cooma, taking 2-12 off eight overs.
Cooma has the bye this Saturday.
- The battle for second place between Moama and Rochester provided a thrilling, high-scoring shoot-out with the visitors sneaking home by five runs.
Rochester opener Blake Evans starred with 82 off 93 balls, with eight fours and three sixes, in a 93-minute stay at the batting crease.
He got plenty of support with Jesse Cuttriss, 38, who produced the second highest score of the Rochester innings.
Moama’s bold bid for victory just failed despite fine knocks from opener Fraser Buchanan with 76, and a half-century from the consistent Jack Russell.
Meanwhile in the lower grades, not even a fighting century from Hamish Hooppell could save Colbinabbin from defeat by Echuca B-grade.
Hooppell’s unbeaten 100 was only one of two double-digit scores for Colbo who finished at 8-143.
But Echuca was able to get the winning runs in the last over.
- With Craig Emmett taking 4-7 and Jayke Fisher 3-9, Stanhope bundled Cooma out for 31 in 20 overs to set up a win in 5.1 overs.
- Shannon Fleming starred with the bat and Rikki Busch with the ball to guide Fire Brigade to a seven-wicket win over Elmore.
Fleming with 70 and Cohan Hooper with an unbeaten 29 produced a match-winning 93-run second-wicket stand.
The Harney boys, James with 30 and Joe with 42, produced the bulk of the Elmore runs against the Flames attack, led by Busch who took 5-19 off 5.3 overs.
- Rushworth’s fall from the top of the ladder three games ago continued after a loss to Moama.
Chasing 113 Rushworth could manage only 100 with Jarryd Shepherd (31) and David Baldwin (20) providing half that total.
Tom Stevens and Josh Newton both picked up three wickets for Rushworth.
- Tongala moved to second spot on the ladder with a win over BLU.
Openers Rory Knight (33) and Alex Williams (25) set up Tongala’s score of 146 and with Dylan Cunningham taking 3-14 BLU fell for 106 in reply.
- Northern United lost only two wickets covering Rochester’s score of 5-139, of which opener Tim Bubb scored a half-century.
C-GRADE
Moama’s Ben Mason had a day out with the bat to lead his side to a big win over Stanhope in a high-scoring shoot-out.
Mason plundered 174 off 108 balls with 19 fours and 11 sixes as Moama piled on 4-306 at Moama’s Brick Alley oval.
Stanhope’s batters didn’t die wondering in their run chase, making 236 of which Daryl Harrison scored a half-century, Ben Condell scored 45 not out and Jacob Gillie 31.
- Fire Brigade’s Justin Elliott was another century-maker on the day, posting 110 to set up a big win for his side against BLU.
Elliott struck 10 fours and eight sixes and with support from Brodie Boal-Ryan (47), Mark Owen (33) and Andrew Stockdale (31 not out) boosted the Flames’ score to 7-274.
BLU was dismissed for 166 in reply with Boal-Ryan completing a good game with 4-22. He was well supported by Matt Fleming with 3-32.
- Girgarre needed just 9.3 overs to secure victory over Echuca South, dismissed for 53.
Kyle Wheeler with an unbeaten 25 and three-wicket hauls to Jon Sherritt and Andrew Medhurst ensured the easy Girgarre win.
- With an unbeaten 62 off 68 balls Nathan Cornwell guided Tongala to an eight-wicket win over Rochester to hold second spot on the ladder.
Rochester made 98 but with Cornwell showing the way Tongala secured victory in 22 overs.
D-GRADE
Half-centuries by Matt Schubach, Michael Mott and young Lachlan Carver set up a winning score of 4-240 for Fire Brigade against Tongala.
Opener Adam Neumann with an unbeaten 82 off 112 balls stood his ground but Tongala was always behind in its run chase and finished at 7-134.
- Rushworth lost the battle of the top sides, eclipsed by Echuca.
Peter ‘The Old Marvel’ Raglus top-scored for Rushworth with 33. He shared an opening partnership of 62 with another veteran, Brent Pateman (29). Jake Lloyd with 30 also contributed to the Rushworth score of 7-125 but with Brian Wolf compiling an unbeaten 55, Echuca secured the win with six overs to spare.
Sports reporter