Lower grades | Echuca slips up, loses top spot

After being sent in, Rushworth’s Thomas Stevens led from the top, making 79, while Liam Francis provided able support with 37.

Conor Beckmans bowled well for Elmore, taking 4-21, but the Tigers capitalised where they could to post a lofty total.

There wasn’t much to celebrate for Elmore, but a notable 63-run 10th wicket partnership between Tyler Oliver (41 not out) and Jack Morris (24) rescued their side from a truly dismal total.

Joshua Newton put in the best performance of the Rushworth bowlers, taking 3-25.

Echuca’s slip-up came against Bamawm-Lockington United, who scraped home by a single wicket after some lower-order heroics.

Connor Shannon held up the Echuca batting effort of 147, making 72 from 71, while Jason Turner bowled well for BLU, contributing 3-21.

Rory van der Zand made 46 in the Lions’ reply, while Col Pearse, who has been rising up the grades in recent weeks, added 25.

At 9-120, BLU looked to have fallen short, but Jason Turner and number 11 Brett Mundie were able to dig in and carve out the 28 additional runs needed for victory.

Contender Stanhope was shocked by Kyabram Fire Brigade as it was sent packing for just 56 runs.

Batting first, number 11 Jacob Gillie was the unlikely top-scorer for Stanhope, the only man to reach double figures.

A devastating four-pronged attack got the job done for the Flames, led by Shaun Doolan (4-12) and Riley Carver (3-20).

Tim Nelson (21 not out) and Lachlan Carver (20 not out) had little difficulty with bat in hand, running down the total within 16 overs.

Moama strung together consecutive wins for the first time, defeating Colbinabbin by 28 runs.

Batting first, Matthew Key made 52 for Moama, while Matthew Watt was the other scorer of note with 40 as the Mowers posted 6-143.

Colbinabbin attempted to respond through Charles Ryan (27) and Jai Featherby (44) but didn’t get enough contributions across the order to complete the chase.

Charles Connors (4-14) and Kane Scott (3-7) were the dual threats in the Moama bowling attack.

Bill Williams Murray B-grade Shield

Cooma benefited from an impressive knock from Hunter Fawcett, who made a dynamic 80 from 47 balls to race his side past the Tongala total of 121.

Tonny battled hard in its batting innings but couldn’t put together a complete performance, Braith Northausen’s 42 the best the Blues could muster.

Fawcett kicked off his big day with 4-17 before carrying the batting innings in a dominant win for Cooma.

Nondies-Cohuna’s 7-167 was out of reach for Moama, who were bowled out 50 runs short of the target.

After a lean shift from the top order, a middle order stand from Manik (35) and Anantveer (39 not out) Sachdeva allowed Nondies to post a competitive total.

Moama relied on Liam Edge (32) and Luke Teasdale (26), but once the pair had departed couldn’t find the required runs.

Logan Higgs looked good with the ball, logging the impressive figures of 4-12 from seven overs.

Rochester got the better of Leitchville-Gunbower by three wickets.

L-G batted first, but there was no innings of note from any of its batsmen. Six players made it to double figures but only Jack Lunghusen (22) surpassed 20.

Kuldeep Lal returned batters to the sheds with regularity, taking 5-39.

Sean Williams led Rochy from the top in the batting response, making 58 from 43 balls as Rochy ran down L-G’s 130 in 32 overs.

Girgarre held on by just three runs against Echuca South, the Swans coming within a shot of the win.

The Kangaroos were sent in and leaned on a balanced batting performance that featured seven double-figure scorers, Simon Tomasini (28) topping that group.

Chasing 130, number 11 Thomas Morphett looked as if he might save the Swans from 9-112, but a resilient 26-ball stay from Jordan Hutton was ended and with it the innings, three runs shy of levelling the scores.

C and D-grades didn’t play this week, starting their Christmas breaks early.

All grades will resume on January 11.