Cricket: Campaign on a knife edge

Reigning Country Week premiers Albany 1 resurrected their 2012 campaign by winning consecutive games on Monday and Tuesday.

Picture by Ben Crabtree: Albany 1's Dave Goodway

After a defeat at the hands of Williams in A-section, Albany 1 beat Busselton-Margaret River by two runs thanks to a second unbeaten half century to Ryan Kinnear.

On day three of the tournament, Albany 1 opened the batting and scored 286 against Upper Great Southern.

UGS were then taken care of by quicks Haydn Burling (2-19), Dylan Parry (2-4) and Zane Marwick (2-5), all out for 144.

Albany skipper Craig Tonkin singled out all-rounder Tim Hutchison as the key figure in game two.

The leg-spinner bowled the last over of the day with the match in the balance.

“He bowled the last over, which was the big one,” Tonkin said.

“They needed four to win … but only got one.”

The Manypeaks duo of Kinnear (52 not out) and Dave Goodway (50) steered their side to a comfortable 7-174 in the same match, while Burling (3-44) was sharp in an 18-over spell that included four maidens.

Young seamer Matt Clothier (2-44) also bowled a solid spell while Tonkin and Dylan Parry picked up a wicket each.

On day three, Clothier (69) proved his worth with the willow, producing a solid knock along with Marwick (44), Nathan Dovey (55) and Nick Parry (34).

Dovey was dismissed for a duck and eight runs in the first and second matches respectively.

Tonkin said a break in play on Wednesday would help his quicks recover before Albany takes on undefeated Harvey-Leschenault today.

“They are the benchmark, the team to beat,” he said.

“They are steady all round so we just need to play the same sort of cricket we did on Tuesday.

“Hopefully our quicks are rested and ready to go today.”

Albany needs to win today and tomorrow against Bunbury and Districts to have any chance of making the finals to defend their 2011 Country Week title.