Albany and Districts Cricket Association U16s go down in heartbreaking junior country week grand final

While the under-14 A side were basking in grand final glory, there was heartbreak for their Albany and District Cricket Association under-16 counterparts, who lost their showpiece CSBP junior country week contest on Friday in Perth. Having reached and lost the grand final last year, they were hoping for better things this time around but found Busselton-Margaret River too hot to handle as they fell to defeat by five wickets. Opting to bat at College Park, ADCA were all out for 161 in 48 overs, struggling with the conditions and the bowling of Busselton-Margaret River’s Sam Smith. Smith ended with figures of 4-30, with the top-order scalps of Cooper Barlow and Dash Germinario the main body blows, stalling the decent progress Albany and Districts had made following the loss of opener Evan Pretorius for six. Germinario went first, lbw for two, with Barlow out for the addition of just one run having made a useful 27. Leo Cunningham, with 24, and Fraser King, who top-scored with 30, put up some resistance lower down the order, and Jenson Brayshaw chipped in with a useful 22, but ADCA were unable to see out their allotted overs. The ADCA bowlers started with a bang, removing both Busselton-Margaret River openers cheaply, but came up against the unmovable objects of Aaron Mattock (72) and Tom Joyce (63), who put on 113 for the third wicket. By the time they were both removed by Pretorius, the contest was over, and it was left to Kye South to hit the winning boundary at 5-163. The ADCA side opened their qualifying campaign with a win over Bunbury and Districts, with Leo Cunningham’s unbeaten 61 helping them to 5-161 before their opponents’ chase fizzled out at 8-128. Albany and Districts chased down Peel’s 6-118 in their second match, reaching 6-119 with an over to spare, Sam Osborne’s half-century proving key. They were well beaten by Busselton-Margaret River in their one-day round-three contest, all out for 136 as their opponents put them to the sword, 8-275. However, there was no stopping them in their final matches as they saw off Wellington and Geraldton to finish second in the pool and qualify for the decider. Germinario’s 85 was the mainstay of the 38-run victory over Wellington and he was again the key figure with a knock of 51 to top-score against Geraldton, a contest ADCA won by 66 runs. Germinario was the second leading run-scorer of the competition with 171, and Cunningham finished with 154 runs. Brayshaw and Angus Clarke-Smith claimed seven wickets each for Albany and Districts over the week.