Skipper blasts ton for Bulls

Returning Mt Barker captain Jeremy Wood has scored his second century in the Albany Cricket Association A-grade competition to help strengthen his side’s finals aspirations, beating Collingwood Park by 64 runs on Saturday afternoon.

A representative of the winning WA Country XI side, Wood batted at No.4 and helped his side recover from the loss of early wickets Alex Fergie (7) and Nathan Crosby (6).

The Bulls made 4-212 from a shortened 43 overs after a rain delay, and that total proved too much for Park to chase down as their finals aspirations all but disappeared.

Wood produced a sublime century on his return from the WA Country XI duties, unleashing after the rain delay on his way to triple figures.

He hit three sixes, including the stroke to bring up a century and whacked six boundaries in his innings of 102 that took the game away from Park.

Wood and Graeme Wright shared in a vital century partnership for the fourth wicket but Wood was stumped in the final over, the ball after reaching his ton, with Wright (39 not out) and Jason Jones (39) helping the Bulls post a big total.

Park lost Nathan Dovey (9), Nic Barrow (0) and Ben Grey (4) when the score was on 20 as no.4 Leroy van den Dool fought doggedly at the other end to keep his side in the hunt.

However van den Dool was quickly running out of partners as the loss of Matt Heberle left Park in plenty of bother at 6-53.

Steve Van Nierop and van den Dool steadied the ship for a while, putting on 52 runs for the seventh wicket.

Noah Middleton got through Van Nierop’s defences on 26 but van den Dool stepped things up as he reached a gritty half century.

He ran out of partners eventually as Park were bowled out for 148 with van den Dool unbeaten on 71 in his most significant A-grade grade innings.

Steven Scott was terrific taking 4-23 from his seven overs while fast bowler Jacob Wintle was back in strong rhythm to return 3-30.

The loss leaves Park two wins out of the top four with three matches to come but for the Bulls it was a fifth win of the season as they join a logjam on the ladder.

The Bulls join Royals and North County on five wins each heading into the final four rounds. Teams on the same wins are separated by firstly their head-to-head record for a place in the finals and then on bonus points.