Jeremiah Shields

The Union Cricket Club senior team put in an outstanding performance with the ball to setup a potential four-peat of Senior titles beating Valley by 9 wickets at King George Park yesterday.

After captain Thomas Shields won the toss and elected to field his bowlers took their task straight away with some great economical bowling. The first ten overs saw only 17 runs scored for the loss of three wickets as fast bowler Chris Ware knocked the top of the Valley top order. It was a vintage Union bowling effort as Valley struggled to get on top of the bowlers and Union taking wickets as they tried to hit out trying to score runs. After Ware finished his first spell of 4-24 of 9 overs, Brad Fleming took over in a great spell taking 5 wickets for only 4 runs including two two-wicket-maidens and taking four wickets in 11 balls at one point. Fleming took the last wicket of the innings to complete his five wicket bag and leave Valley effectively without a chance of making the Senior final, all out for 62 in the 31st over. A telling aspect of the innings and Unions dominance was that of those 31 overs, almost half -14 of them - were maidens.

The home team started confidently moving to 21 with out loss in the fifth over before the loss of Jeremiah Shields for 3. Fellow opener, the aggressive Antony Cromwell, took to the Valley bowlers and finished with 38 not out, 26 of those runs through boundaries. Union cruised to victory with the winning runs being brought up in the 11th over, Duncan Drew finishing with 15 not out.

In a repeat of last years final, Union will play Albion after they beat Waitaki Boys in their semi-final. Overall Union has a team in each of the three finals to be played.

Player Pages:
Antony Cromwell | Duncan Drew | Brad Fleming | Jeremiah Shields | Thomas Shields | Chris Ware |

Valley 62 ( G. Mavor 17, T. Squire 12, Fleming 5-4, Ware 4-24 )
Union 66-1 ( A. Cromwell 38no, D. Drew 15no )
Union won by 9 wickets
Full scorecard for the match