Hills with a Peake on top

By Marc McGowan
ENDEAVOUR Hills sits inside the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association’s top four after its third win from four matches on Saturday.
And off-spinner Shane Peake was prominent again, taking five wickets.
The Hills managed just five victories last season, but look set to easily usurp that total this summer.
The latest triumph was by 58 runs over winless Bayswater at Bayswater Park after Endeavour Hills looked in trouble after day one.
The Hills compiled 193 – its best score of the year – but the tally could have been much more after cruising to 4/136 at tea on day one.
Bayswater struggled to 4/51 in reply after the loss of two early wickets and its cause was not helped when opener Dean Connell retired hurt with back problems.
The hosts looked back on track after adding 40 runs for the fifth wicket, only for Endeavour Hills captain-coach Vaughan Baxter to drag the clash back in his side’s favour.
Baxter combined with gloveman Neil Peake to run out Nirman Jayasinghe to signal the beginning of the end.
Shane Peake (5/33) pocketed the crucial wickets of Connell – when he returned to the crease – and Daniel Adams and then cleaned up the tail as the Hills dismissed Bayswater for a meagre 135.
Peake has snared 11 wickets at an average of 11.7 and made 75 valuable runs at 18.8 this season.
Englishman Richard Evans (2/41), another who is enjoying a strong start to the year, was Endeavour Hills’ other multiple wicket-taker.
The Hills was 1/20 in its second innings when the umpires called an end to the fixture.
Baxter was thrilled to claim the points after conceding he would rather have been in Bayswater’s position after day one.
“It was a very good win. We took two early wickets, but I was still concerned when they got to 4/51,” he said.
“I keep saying it, but we have no superstars and we just execute the basics well and just bowled to plans and set fields appropriately.
“We still have plenty of room for improvement – we haven’t made 200 runs yet.”
Baxter believes he will know more about his side’s prospects after the final three outings of 2008 against defending champion Box Hill (ninth), Brighton (seventh) and Malvern (third).
“I don’t want us getting ahead of ourselves because we’ve played one high team – Oakleigh – and fell over pretty badly,” he said.
“We have Box Hill this week and I’m not saying the others we played have not been strong sides, but we’ll see where we’re at this week.”
Endeavour Hills faces Box Hill at Box Hill City Oval from 1pm on Saturday, with Sydney Pargeter Reserve still not available.
All-rounder Richard Saniga will be out for one more contest.
Hills fourth XI all-rounder Mark Stevens starts his 200th game for the club against Noble Park on Saturday.