Strong partnerships help Collingwood Park score comfortable win over Railways in ADCA A-grade competition

Collingwood Park returned to the winners’ list with a hard-fought bonus-point win over Railways in round 14 of the Albany and Districts Cricket Association A-grade competition on Saturday. Park finished comfortable 55-run winners over the Tigers at Turf East in the penultimate round as they cemented themselves in third place heading into the final round this week. Park will face either Royals or Mt Barker in the preliminary final on March 11, pending the outcome of the round-15 clash between that pair this Saturday. Park won the toss and batted first, and they started off their innings on shaky ground, losing 3-28 in the opening stages. John Miell (4), Buddy Robinson (6) and Devon Jefferis (17) all fell early before Rory Luscombe and Scottish international Oliver Davidson steadied the ship with a 43-run stand. Luscombe was caught from the bowling of Mitchell T’Hart for 20 and Jarrod Hansen followed him to the pavilion shortly afterwards, removed by Lachie Tindale for three. However, the formidable duo of Davidson and Jarrad Fuller helped Park cruise past triple figures as they put on a game-defining 97-run stand. Fuller finished on 63 off 64, hitting six fours and one six before he was bowled by Ryan Tindale in the 48th over. Davidson looked set to finish unbeaten at the crease but he too was dismissed from the bowling of Ryan Tindale, skittled for 65 with the third-last delivery of the innings. The young Scottish all-rounder made 65 off 98 with four fours as Park finished with an impressive total of 7-206. Captain Coen Marwick finished as the pick of the bowlers for the Tigers with bowling figures of 2-15 from his 10 overs, while veteran Ryan Tindale snared 2-37. Crucial early contributions from Milan Jaggi (24 off 62) and Coen Marwick (35 off 46) helped the Tigers sail to 4-128 by the 37th over but Jarrad Norton took the important wicket of Marwick in that over, triggering a collapse. The Tigers’ lower order failed to wag, losing 6-23 as they slumped to their 10th one-day loss. Norton ripped through the tail to snare five wickets, dismissing Lachie Tindale (0), Alan Pietersen (32), Aaron Abbott (2) and Sam Slater (4) to help Park skittle the Tigers for 151. Norton’s terrific spell yielded 5-22, while spinner Davidson also (2-34) showed his versatility with the ball.