Railways record breaking premiership triumph

Railways have rewritten the history books by winning a fifth straight Albany Cricket Association A-grade premiership after cruising to a six-wicket triumph over Manypeaks in Sunday afternoon’s grand final.

The Tigers and Collingwood Park (2005-09) had both won four straight flags but no team in ACA history had achieved five successive A-grade titles until Sunday when, yet again, the Tigers asserted their dominance on the competition.

Peaks won the toss and elected to bat but after a middle-order collapse could only manage 9-104 from their 50 overs.

The Tigers made light work of the run chase on their way to more glory, reaching the small total inside 30 overs for the loss of only four wickets to again prove they are the best team in the competition.

Tigers skipper Zane Marwick said the feat was still sinking in but he was extremely proud of every player who contributed to their fifth premiership in a row.

“It was hard to find motivation at the start of the year,” Marwick said.

“We were finding it tough to live up to the high standards we’d set.

“We sat down and had a chat and the boys really responded to that, they really lifted and put their best foot forward and this is the result.

“I don’t think anyone has realised exactly how massive an effort this actually is, it will take a while to reflect on and sink in.”

Marwick is joined by veterans Tim Edmunds and Ryan Tindale and all-rounder Nathan Crudeli as members of all five premiership triumphs.

Edmunds and Marwick helped blunt Peaks’ bid for early wickets in the run chase, sharing in a 41-run stand that got them past the critical 10-over mark before the skipper departed for 22 runs from 32 balls when caught off Wade Anning’s bowling.

Edmunds frustrated the Peaks attack for his 15 runs and Mitch Green chipped in with 23 before Matt Walters blasted 20 runs from 17 balls, including the winning clip through midwicket, as the Tigers finished 4-105, with Walters and Aidan Dallimore unbeaten at the crease.

Earlier, the Tigers bowlers again stole the show as Tindale provided another evergreen performance with the ball.

Peaks had consolidated after losing Ryan Kinnear (3) and Aran Tilbury (9) early on but when Marwick bowled Harry Broomhall on 23, after he missed one coming down the wicket, their middle order fell apart.

Tindale took two wickets in as many balls on the verge of drinks as Myles O’Meehan and Anning were sent packing and when Peaks captain Craig Sinclair edged one to the cordon on eight off Tindale his side had slumped to 6-50.

Warwick Durack made a fighting 22 at No.7 but it was in vain as they batted out their overs for 104.

“This feels very good,” Marwick said.

“We have a lot of new guys tasting their first A-grade success and they are going to enjoy it.

“A lot of teams see batting as our strength but we definitely think it’s our bowling.

“With the ball and in the field, that again set us up in this grand final.”

Peaks’ hopes of defending such a small total took a big hit when Sinclair failed to bowl an over with a torn calf suffered while batting and key paceman Durack lasted three overs before tearing a quad.

Broomhall took 3-21 from 5.1 overs but the Tigers passed the target in the 28th over and their celebrations began.

“It was a disappointing day in a lot of ways,” Sinclair said.

“We went down with one injury during the week and two on the day today and that really hurt us.

“We were looking all right early on but didn’t push on in the middle overs; losing those three wickets in a bunch, I don’t think we recovered from that.

“104 is not enough and we troubled their batsmen quite a bit but not enough to get into their middle order.

“The guys are proud having got this far and to win our semi last week, the competition has been very even this year.”

The match was transferred to Sunday after persistent rain force the decider to be postponed from the original Saturday timeslot.