Finley C-grade took home a gutsy, hard fought win over a valiant Deniliquin Rhinos side on Saturday to win the Murray Valley Cricket Association grand final.
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It capped off an incredible season and means that after losses in the last two seasons, the C-grade Cats win their first premiership cup since 2009.
The day started with Deniliquin winning the toss and electing to bat first.
The Cats opened up the bowling with Glynn Lloyd (1/14) and Ian Swain (0/11) bowling really well, and not give up any easy runs.
A change in bowling saw Matt Clarke 0/22 and Luke Keating 0/18 start to leak runs.
Deniliquin openers Tom McCallum (33) and Anthony Bradley (52) really started to cash in.
Some unfortunate luck and missed chances were starting to prove costly as Deniliquin kept pushing the score along.
The introduction of vice captain Callum Campbell 1/20 proved to be a good decision, picking up the wicket of McCallum with the help of a sharp catch from Clarke at square leg.
Captain Murray Urqhurt 2/14 brought himself into the attack removing league best and fairest Chris Pyle (5) with a great catch by Russell Anderson at first slip.
Tim Hillier (28) kept the score ticking along for Deni, but with Bradley retiring the Cats really tightened the screws.
Lenny Dattoli (2/18) kept the pressure on taking two wickets in an over.
Hillier and Rana Aslam looked to take to the attack scoring freely, but the re-introduction of Urqhurt and Lloyd saw both batsmen dismissed, caught in the deep by Dattoli and Clarke helping, restricting Deniliquin to 143.
Finley started their chase of 143 and a premiership conservatively.
Starting openers Clarke (15) and Justin Crowley (9) really dug in.
It was the introduction of Hillier into the attack that proved fruitful, trapping both openers in front LBW.
This brought Swain (46) to the crease.
He looked in complete control, ticking the scoreboard over.
He was assisted by Keating (10) before he was caught behind off Andrew Holloway (1/29).
This then brought veteran Anderson (21 not out) to the crease, and he kept the scoreboard going up.
The Cats had reached 100 when Swain was dismissed, caught behind off Aslam.
It was then Urqhurt who came to the crease and took the game on with a determination to get his team across the line.
The target was within in reach.
Anderson and Urqhurt took every opportunity to score.
It was in the 34th over that Anderson took a single that got the Cats over the line to become C-grade premiers.
Finley C-grade premiership team (back, from left) Russell Anderson, Ben Chesworth, Lenny Dattoli, Cameron Lawler, Glynn Lloyd and Roree Wallis (front) Justin Crowley, Luke Keating, vice captain Callum Campbell, captain Murray Urquhurt, Matt Clarke and Ian Swain.
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