Geraldton Bendigo Bank Cricket: Towns claim minor premiership as they prepare for automatic grand final berth

The final qualifying round of the Geraldton Bendigo Bank Cricket league will be played on Saturday.

It has no bearing on placings as Towns has won the minor premiership and its sweet plum of an automatic grand final berth.

They will meet the winner of next week’s preliminary final between Wanderers and Sportsmans.

Wanderers will, however, relish an opportunity to get some impetus back in their cricket after their game at GBSC Park against Towns.

Wanderers set the pace initially this season but an unexpected loss to Bluff Point on December 12 was an omen as it was the first of five defeats from their past seven games.

About the same time Towns was in the ascendancy, being three games into a 10-game winning streak, which includes retaining the Young Motors T20 Series Cup.

Wanderers’ Damien King needs one wicket to take his A-Grade wicket tally to 100, while Gus Heberle is 28 short of 500 runs.

Zane Marwick needs four wickets to move very quickly to 50 but in four games against Towns this season he’s averaged a wicket a game.

Even so, given two of those games were T20s, Marwick’s economy rate against Towns is just three runs an over. Towns are wise to be cautious.

For Towns, Ringo McKenna and Tom Forsyth respectively need one and three wickets to reach 200. Presuming he bats, Jeremy Bedford will play his 50th innings and Sam Crouch is 26 runs shy of 3000.

The other match is at Mazzuchelli Oval, with home team Chapman Valley-Northampton to meet Bluff Point.

The Pointers have not had a great season but have beaten CVN three times out of three this season and also rolled Towns and Wanderers, so there have been moments.

CVN has not won a game this season and at times without the recompense of saying that they were at least competitive. For CVN, Mitch Marsh needs one wicket for 50 career wickets.

In B-grade, only Dongara is certain of qualifying for the finals though CVN, because of a healthy quotient, should get there. The other two places are up for grabs.

B-grade: Towns v CVN (Rec Gd); Bluff Pt v Kalbarri (Muir Pk); Dongara v Sportsmans (Dongara).