Tough campaign for Albany and Districts Cricket Association B-section side at senior country week

Albany and Districts Cricket Association B-section side finished their Senior Country Week campaign in disappointing fashion after their relegation final loss to Eastern Districts on Friday.

After a first-up win over South Midlands on Sunday, the Whalers failed to notch another victory and went down in their final 60-over match against Eastern Districts 1 by 89 runs at Coker Park in Perth.

Eastern Districts won the toss and it proved a big toss to win as they posted a huge total of 292 all out despite strong showings with the ball from Whalers’ Jon Gellweiler (3-31) and Lachlan Tindale (3-39).

Angus Thompson claimed the opening wicket of Robert Spurr for 26 runs before Cameron Newbold snared the second when Andrew Harris was caught to leave Eastern Districts at 2-95.

However, wickets were hard to come by from there with Kelly James (80) and Tully Biglin (82) changing the momentum of the game with an outstanding 140-run stand.

James was finally skittled by Gellweiler in the 49th over and that led to a flurry of much-needed wickets for the Whalers as they took the final seven wickets at the cost of 57 runsbut the damage was already done.

Gellweiler finished as the pick of the bowlers for the Whalers with figures of 3-31 and he was well supported by Tindale (3-39) and Angus Thompson (2-66).

The two wickets of Thompson (10) and Jason Jones (26) fell first before Jed Schwarzbach and Hayden Davies shared in a 58-run partnership.

Davies (31) and Schwarzbach (32) were both dismissed, bringing to the crease Aran Tilbury, who wasted no time in getting to work.

Tilbury smashed three fours in a row and then hit a six, then a four three overs later, in a desperate attempt to regain control of the run chase.

However, Tilbury was trapped in front by Biglin in the 33rd over and despite Milan Jaggi contributing 25 runs, the Whalers were all out for 203.

Biglin had an outstanding day as he snared 6-29 to lead Eastern Districts to victory.

On Wednesday, Albany and Districts fell short against Great Southern 1 in their final pool game.

Great Southern posted 6-225 at the conclusion of from their 60 overs despite the bowling efforts of Gellweiler (2-17) and Ryan Tindale (1-51from 16 overs).

The Whalers could only manage 93 in reply, with Schwarzbach (23) and Dan Robson (33) the best with the bat.

In their playoff on Thursday against Warren Blackwood 1, the Whalers came agonisingly close to victory after posting a strong total of 212 batting first.

Jason Jones (50), Jed Schwarzbach (58) and Lachlan Tindale (38) led from the front, Jones smacking eight boundaries and Schwarzbach hitting seven but it was not enough.

Despite superb bowling spells from Steven Scott (4-73), Davies (2-34) and Ryan Tindale (2-55), Warren Blackwood reached the required total with nine balls to spare and two wickets in hand.

Jones finished the campaign as the fifth-highest run scorer on 190while Schwarzbach made 120 runs in the competition.

Ryan Tindale finished with 10 wickets to be the highest wicket-taker for Albany and Districtswhile Scott had nine of his own in a solid week with the ball.