MILDURA Settlers have risen from the dead since Christmas to finish in top spot after Sunraysia cricket’s First Division home-and-away season.
Heading into the final round, the defending premiers were in a precarious fourth place and could have missed the finals if they were beaten by fifth-placed Mildura West.
Not only did they comfortably account for West on first innings at the weekend, but a quick-fire second-innings 6/97 off 14 overs saw them motor into first.
Gol Gol went into Round 14 as the competition’s frontrunners, but they were beaten by Coomealla Wentworth on Saturday. It put them back to third on the ladder and the Blues jumped from third to second and will host them in week one of the finals.
For Setts, it was a red-letter day on Saturday as all of their senior teams won, setting up a long and joyous night as the club celebrated its 50th year in existence.
For good measure, the club’s Under-16 side triumphed in their junior grand final on Sunday.
Setts’ top-grade captain, Braidyn Turner, said his team had responded well to their knockers.
“Everyone was counting us out in January. Even people at our own club were telling us we were too old when we lost the first two games after Christmas,” Turner said.
“But when we came out against Irymple after that, every ball was going to be our last and we got an outright win. That’s sparked us to where we are now.
“We feel really good about how it’s all coming together. We put 260 on the board last week and our bowling and fielding’s been awesome the past few weeks.”
Setts’ victory on Saturday was led by veteran quick Mark Cleary, who took 3/20 off 18 overs (including nine maidens), as they dismissed West for 139.
Cleary was well supported by Richie Wyld and Cooper Aldridge, who each bagged three wickets.
“The key for us was to restrict (West star) Chris Williams. He ended making 65 but Willo’s in another stratosphere as far as skill goes,” Turner said.
“He’s a player you don’t mind seeing make runs because he’s so elegant and smart with the bat. But we ended up getting him.”
He said the club was keeping an eye on the Coome-Gol Gol score after tea on Saturday.
“Thankfully our chairman of selectors is an accountant and he was crunching numbers for us. We realised we could finish first or second, depending on how things went in the last hour of play,” Turner said.
“We went back out (for our second innings) and got as many runs as we could off our 14 overs and it turned to be good enough to get us into first place.”
Coome playing coach Liam Freeman praised the batting performance of Justin Freeman (90 not out) in guiding the Blues to victory with tail-ender Andrew Porker (22).
“Justin’s actually taken his batting to another level this season. He’s much more patient and he’s worked hard on his game,” Freeman said.
He said his team was well placed to make a run at lifting the premier’s silverware next month.
“We haven’t lost a game since Christmas and we feel confident we’re the best team in it now,” Freeman said.
“We proved last year that we can get there (to the grand final). We weren’t mature enough to play our natural game, but a year on, we’re a bit wiser and ready to take the next step.”
In the weekend’s other games, Nichols Point (122) upset Irymple, who drop to fourth place, bowling them out for 103 in 42.2 overs. Shaun Mathews took 4/13 and Mitch Lindsey chimed in with 3/32 for Nichols Point.
At Chaffey Park, Merbein South were dismissed for 156 chasing Mildura’s East day-one total of 7/186. Tom Vadlja backed up his 71 not out on day one with 4/45 on Saturday.
