Endeavour Hills paceman Matthew Hutchinson toiled manfully against Williamstown on Saturday, but could not carry his side over the line.By Marc McGowan
DESPITE staring at likely defeat before play began on Saturday, Endeavour Hills fought out proceedings against unbeaten Williamstown at Sydney Pargeter Reserve.
Williamstown wound up an eight-wicket winner in the Victorian Sub District Cricket Association fixture on a batter-friendly deck.
The game began in tough conditions for the Hills the previous weekend when it was sent in on a rain-affected wicket.
Endeavour Hills could only muster 133 before Williamstown scooted to 2/80 by the end of play.
On resumption, while the Hills dried up the runs it could not produce the eight breakthroughs required to steal an unlikely victory.
Matthew Drain (70) and Graham Murdoch (106 not out) continued their budding partnership, which only came to an end when the former retired hurt.
Williamstown had plenty of willing allies waiting in the wings to pick up the slack, with Daryl Clemson (33 not out) and Cameron Smith (29) the best of them.
In the end the outing became nothing more than batting practice as the visitors sharpened up for the finals.
The positive for Endeavour Hills was the bowling figures of wicketkeeper/off-spinner Jason Williams.
Williams, in his debut bowling effort in a match, snared figures of 2/42.
With Williams’ upcoming unavailability for this weekend’s encounter, Hills captain-coach Ben Maroney threw him the ball to test the skills of young gloveman Kane Gillespie.
The other multiple wicket-taker for Endeavour Hills was Matthew Hutchinson with 2/59 from 20 overs.
While Maroney held little hope for a win before play began, he still made sure his players were ready for the unexpected.
“At the start of the day, I just said that cricket is a funny game and anything can happen,” he said.
“We needed 8/50, but we’d bowled a side out for 45 the game before, so there was still a chance to take eight wickets.”
Maroney praised his players for their persistence and believes the experience will serve them well.
“They didn’t give in until (Williamstown) actually passed us and after that they still showed good character and there were not too many negatives – they tried really hard,” he said.
“As I said last week, to beat them we had to play on a wet wicket and send them in, but it ended up being the opposite way and they’re a class above everyone in the ‘subbies’.”
Edward Ginger and Williams are both unavailable for this Saturday’s contest against Oakleigh at Warrawee Park Oval, which begins at 1pm.
The Hills will regain the services of all-rounder Shaun Tongue.
“We need an outright now (to stay in the finals race),” Maroney said.
“Mathematically we can still make it, but I think we’ll just miss out.
“It’s been a big improvement on last year already, so if we can finish with two wins it would be excellent.”
