THE bottom three sides on the Sunraysia Cricket Association table all started the new year with important victories in round 8 of competition.
Mildura Settlers, Merbein and Coomealla Wentworth all secured points on Saturday, with the latter now up to fifth place following their win.
Meanwhile, Irymple’s home twilight game against Gol Gol was abandoned due to rain, but not before Swallows skipper Mark Thomson scored his second century of the campaign.
Settlers secured their first victory of the season by holding off Mildura West to win by seven runs at Mildura Senior College.
Richie Wyld’s preparations for the Over 40s World Cup are in perfect swing, scoring 75 from 87 deliveries to guide Setts to 9/213 from their 40 overs, sharing in a 96-run stand with Clint Williams (36) after they were 4/44.
West youngsters Josh Driscoll (2/40) and Taj Hill (2/48) were the leading wicket takers.
The loss of three early wickets hurt West’s run chase but solid knocks from skipper Greg Lewis (48 from 44) and coach Chris Williams (43) helped steady the ship.
West required 17 to win from the final over and despite Hill bringing it back to requiring 10 from the final four balls, Mukesh Sharma was able to stifle the scoring opportunities.
Jason Morrison led all wicket takers for Setts with 3/49.
Merbein claimed a huge scalp by knocking over ladder leaders Nichols Point by three wickets as the visiting side.
Captain Mark East (34) and all-rounder Tony Trinick (29) led the run chase for the Magpies, getting them across the line chasing 158 for their second win with 11 balls to spare.
Pointers recruit Archie Walker took 3/51 in his debut for his new side, but 26 extras for the entire bowling unit proved costly.
Earlier, Riley Jobson and Shannon Bowen continued their strong season scoring 49 and 48 not out respectively as the Pointers were held to 5/157, all wickets being shared among the Merbein bowlers.
Coomealla Wentworth could breath a heavy sigh of relief as they won a one-wicket thriller over Mildura East at George Gordon Oval.
Chasing 175 to win, the Blues looked in control at 6/172, however they slipped to 9/174 in the second last over as Jayden Hunt found himself on a hat-trick and almost forcing a tie.
Three byes at the end of the over ensured the Blues made it home, led by Justin Freeman’s 42 and Liam Freeman’s 34.
Hunt finished with 4/38 and Ryan Muir 3/44 for East, while in their batting innings Englishman Josh Andrews top scored with 64.
Irymple captain Thomson improved on his highest first division top score, finishing on 116 from 108 deliveries as the Swallows made 9/209 from their 40 overs.
The all-rounder was supported by Billy Phelan (23) and Dave Filippi (22), with Luke Hickey, Than Rajapakse, Shac Thomas and Matt Cameron all taking two wickets each.
Gol Gol, minus Wade Hancock on representative duties had their innings washed out but the shared points ensured they skipped past Nichols Point to the top of the ladder.
