Congratulations to Box Hill Juniors with 2 Premierships.

Two premierships from two grand finals and the rooms at Box Hill City Oval were bouncing tonight with lemonade and cola levels never seen this high - well sort of.

Tom Barelli's U/16's win strongly and Gary Douglas's U/14's win comprehensively. Love the adjectives, but both teams dispalyed under pressure why they were the best teams within their respective grades with wonderful victories.

For full match reports and summaries, see below.

Grand Final Match Report Under 16B 14/3/2010

After easily defeating Bulleen in the semi-final who had been the dominant team all year, we had to play East Doncaster in the final on their home ground. They had beaten us at the same ground earlier in the year after they chased down our score of 175 in the last over.

The ground was quite wet following some overnight dew and unsurprisingly East Doncaster opted to bat first after winning the toss. Lachy Fraser and Tom Hands opened the bowling and immediately set a high standard, conceding only 14 runs off the first 10 overs. Tom in particular was outstanding, returning the figures of 7 overs, 2 for five. The rest of our bowlers followed Lachy and Tom’s lead, with Harrison, Gaurev, Nigel and Ashley all bowling well and picking up wickets at regular intervals. Ashley was the stand out bowler, returning figures of 10 overs, 4 for 26, including East Doncaster’s best batsman. We eventually dismissed East Doncaster in the 45^th over for 85 following a fantastic all round bowling, fielding and catching performance.

In our batting innings, we unfortunately lost Cam Gibbs early who was given out to a dubious LBW decision. Gaurev Parikh and Nick McIndoe then shared a 59 run second wicket partnership to put us on the verge of victory although both got out in consecutive overs for 39 and 21 respectively. Harrison, Nigel and Lachy then polished off the remaining runs to deliver us the premiership.

Congratulations to all the boys who took part in winning the premiership. Our fielding and catching before Christmas was awful but all the guys worked hard at it and improved out of sight to help us win the premiership. I wish all the boys the best and hope that they continue to persevere with their cricket.

Grand Final Match Report Under 14C 14/3/2010

Box Hill 4/106 (28 overs) defeated Hawthorn 103.

Hawthorn won the toss and batted but soon regretted this decision as they were 3/12 after 8 overs. Wickets continued to fall and they were 5/37 at the end of the first hour. Three of their top 4 batsman were back in the shed with a total of 17 runs. Douglas, Smart and O’Loughlin shared the wickets early.

A couple of their batsmen dug in and took the score to 6/90 after 2 hours but quick wickets after the break saw them all out for 103. The main wicket takers were Smart with 3/8, Magee 2/12 and O’Dea 2/3. The aim was to bowl line and length and to attack the ball in the field. Seven runs were scored off the first 6 overs (Douglas 1/3 and McElroy 0/4) and the tone was set for the day.

34 overs later we had bowled 10 maidens and hit the pegs 7 times! Tight fielding all day was exemplified by Khan whose work in the gully was applauded by all spectators. Hook and Magee bowled in tandem with our spinners, Collopy and Alderton allowing only 2 ½ runs per over in the middle order. Snibson kept beautifully all day and the score card shows one bye in 40 overs.

After bowling so well the boys were instructed to play straight, put their heads down get the runs as a team. Collopy and Alderton saw off their openers, and Smart and O’Loughlin played straight and respected some good middle order bowling. McElroy and Hook contributed runs and then Douglas quickly put the result beyond doubt. Khan, O’dea (the winning runs) and Bertacco finished off the batting and the runs were scored evenly throughout the team.

We scored 106 runs off 28 overs at 3 ½ per over. This was sensible batting by a group of boys who have matured during the finals campaign. The team ethos was ever apparent and praised by the opposing coach at the conclusion of the match.

ALL boys performed well and are to be congratulated on a wonderful result. For the purists, there were also some impressive statistics over the 2 finals appearances as seen below.

O’Loughlin 26 runs (1n.o.) and 4/23 off 8 overs;

Magee 23 runs (1n.o.) and 3/13 off 8 overs;

Smart 22 runs not out and 3/19 off 8 overs; and

Douglas 40 runs (1n.o.) and 2/13 off 8 overs.

Cricket is a team game and all boys contributed during the year with either bat or ball and in the field.

Full results can be seen on the My Cricket website.

Thanks to all involved with special mentions to Michelle Smart (team manager), Andrew Davidson, Tony Burrill. Roger Gerny and Leigh Espisito.