Royals in box seat to play finals after tense victory, superb bowling performance helps Peaks dominate Bulls

Royals rebounded strongly from their heavy defeat against Mt Barker last week in the Albany and Districts Cricket Association to score a narrow win over Collingwood Park in round 16 on Saturday. The tense two-wicket win put the Lions in the box seat to finish third and play finals this season. The Lions sit 14 points clear of Railways, while Collingwood Park are 15 points adrift at the bottom of the standings with four rounds to play. Lions skipper Mitch Green again led the way in their fifth victory of the season, as his unbeaten 71 guided his side home in the run chase. Park posted 7-159 batting first, but the Lions were able to chase down the total in the 45th over. The Lions were in early trouble at 4-33 as Park seamer Mitch Woods ripped through the top order claiming the first four wickets. A fighting 65-run stand from Green and Michael Roberts steadied the innings, as the skipper continued to tick the score over. Roberts skied a ball to be out for 22 and when Lorcan McNamara was caught at slip the Lions had four wickets in hand and still required 57 for victory. Green reached his third half century of the season and he put on 32 valuable runs with youngster Angus Thompson (12). Thompson was dismissed trying to go over the top and Tyler Crommelin added nine runs but his wicket sent nerves through the Lions camp with 11 runs to win. Green and and Marcus Mellon got their side over the line however, as the captain finished unbeaten on 71 from 85 balls which included eight fours. Woods was very impressive with figures of 4-15 from eight overs and Matt Heberle snared 3-32. Batting first Nathan Dovey (36), Nick Barrow (30) and Heberle (29) all got starts but the discplined Lions attack never let them get away. When Dovey was dismissed they were 4-120 but Park managed only 39 runs in the final 10 overs and lost four wickets. McNamara was efficient with 2-19 off nine overs and Green took 2-42. Park have not won a 50-over fixture since round two and have lost their past four matches. Meanwhile a brilliant bowling performance from Manypeaks helped them cause a big upset, handing Mt Barker their first 50-over loss of the season. Peaks made 171 batting first and followed that up with a superb bowling effort to rip through the Bulls for just 88, securing a bonus point victory as a result. The Bulls slumped to 2-9 before Jeremy Wood and Neil Ferreira put on 28 runs together. But the premiership fancies crumbled, losing 7-25 to be all out for under 100. Peaks youngster Charlie Walters claimed 4-20 off eight overs and spinner Ryan Kinnear (3-13) also did damage with the ball. After falling to 4-61 early on, Peaks recovered thanks to Paul Donaldson and Warwick Durack. Durack was out three runs short of a half century and Donaldson made a valuable 39 as Peaks surpassed 150. Wood was the pick of the Bulls bowlers with 3-23.