Royals are ADCA T20 champions after roaring to another grand final victory over Mt Barker

Royals claimed the Albany and Districts Cricket Association A-grade T20 premiership after prevailing over archrivals Mt Barker in an enthralling grand final at Turf North on Sunday. The Lions had to win their final qualifying match of the T20 format to reach the decider while the Bulls went through the round-robin format undefeated. After losing to the Bulls by eight wickets on Saturday in round four, the Lions reversed that result as they finished 33-run winners over the current ADCA ladder leaders. Defending 127, the Lions snared two vital early breakthroughs and then young star Ryley Valli claimed the key scalps of Brent Jarvis-Spinks and Nathan Crudeli in a spell that put his side in the box seat. The Bulls were always behind the required run rate and despite some late hitting from Adam Ditchburn and Steven Scott they finished 9-94 in reply as they fell short in their bid to win back-to-back T20 titles. It was a maiden T20 grand final victory for the Lions, who are the reigning A-grade premiers, and skipper Mitch Green said the performance will give his side great confidence in the second half of the season. “It was a fantastic win by the boys and a real team effort across all of the fixtures,” Green said. “Barker are a quality outfit and I thought we were probably 10-15 runs short with the bat. “I was very pleased with the way we bowled up front, Holty (Dylan Holt) and Frank (Matt France) kept it tight during the power play and then we were able to put the clamps on during the middle to restrict boundaries. “Ryley Valli was a stand-out with 20-odd and three wickets. “It is always good to win any grand final, we will take lots of confidence from that win and hopefully take it into the back half of the year.” On a wicket that got slower as the day went on, Green won the toss and chose to bat and he led the way at the top with Valli. Valli and Green shared in a 55-run opening stand. Alex Fergie had Valli caught behind for 20 from 27 balls and Green was undone by Scott soon after making 32 from 28 balls. The Lions had another important partnership between Lincoln Joy and Leighton Smith, who both made 17, and then some late hitting from powerful all-rounder France pushed his side beyond 100. France hit three boundaries in his brisk 27 from 20 balls and shared in a 33-run stand with Ted Batchelor to get the Lions to 6-127 as they took 10 runs from the final Nathan Crudeli over and 35 in the final five overs of the innings. Fergie was the pick of the bowlers with 2-15 and Crudeli (1-26) was hard to get away early on. The Bulls chase got off to a bad start when Holt removed Fergie for two and then bowled Clayton Wood (3). Valli then produced a wonderful spell in the middle overs and had Jarvis-Spinks caught behind on nine, the dangerous Crudeli chipped a ball to short mid-wicket on 19 and then snared Ditchburn, who had cleared the rope once, on 18. Spinner Jack Hastie (2-11) helped close out the game for the Lions but Valli was outstanding with 3-15 from his four overs and 20 runs. The Bulls clearly missed the impact of captain Jeremy Wood, who was sidelined with a hamstring injury, and lost 6-35 in the middle overs to end their hopes of victory.