Corner and Quartermaine star as Towns record second win of UGSCA season to down Cuballing

Cuballing remain without a win in the Upper Great Southern Cricket Association after Towns handed them their third defeat of the season at Clayton Road Oval on Saturday. The four-wicket victory in round four was set up by a brilliant unbeaten knock of 92 from Nick Corner along with clinical bowling from Aaron Quartermaine and Mitchell Ackland. Cuballing were buoyed early as Joe Dowling and Grady Francis put together a 47-run opening partnership. Quartermaine removed Francis on 21 before Kendal Ballard added 36 in a 66-run stand with Dowling. Despite Ballard’s stumps being knocked over at the hands of Quartermaine, Cuballing were in a strong position at 2-113 after 20 overs. However Ackland dismissed Dowling on 68 which triggered a collapse as Cuballing lost 4-16 to finish on 8-201. It looked as though Towns were in strife, falling to 2-20 early on with James Nicholson and Quartermaine departing quickly. Chris Bettely and Corner steadied the ship before Betteley was gone for 31. Ballard had Liam Sweeney out for 22 and Kade Maley for two as Corner continued to chip away at the run chase. Ackland added 15 more before he was removed to bring Pierre Maas to the crease at number eight. Maas and Corner shared in a crucial 35-run stand to get their side home with five overs to spare. Corner’s valuable innings of 92 included 10 fours and one six while Maas hit four boundaries as his side finished on 6-202. Ackland (3-19) and Quartermaine (3-43) were the pick of the bowlers for Towns while Francis returned 2-22 for the visitors. Elsewhere Pingelly-Noonebin played out a thrilling tie with Williams in Pingelly on Saturday. Williams won the toss and batted first, posting a total of 164 with Rodney Ford (83) and Ben Cavanagh (32) doing the majority of the scoring. Knocks from Brett Blechynden (47no), Jordan Hughes (42) and Luke Brown (32) got Pingelly-Noonebin back into contention. In a pulsating finish, they needed 11 runs from the final over. It looked as if Blechynden was going to pull off an unlikely finish, whacking eight runs from three balls before Williams’ Steven Ford trapped Callum Giles-Morton in front. With Kacey Beard only managing a single run with the final ball, both sides had to settle for a tie with Pingelly-Noonebin finishing at 8-164. Hughes was the pick of the bowlers for Pingelly-Noonebin with a return of 4-30 while Mitch Hogg took 3-31 for Williams in a clinical bowling display. Meanwhile Lake Grace were five-wicket winners in their clash with Wandering on Saturday. Wandering were all out for 119 before Lake-Grace chased the total down losing five wickets to notch their second win of the season. Kalan Joyce made 37 off 70 balls and he was well supported by Dylan Brooks on 33 as Lake Grace finished on 5-121 in the 26th over.