Cricket
20 March, 2024
Homers defeat Warriors in exciting final
The Homers are the 2023/2024 Horsham Cricket Association A Grade two-day premiers after defeating West Wimmera at Horsham City Oval on the weekend.
West Wimmera won the toss and elected to bat and it was Baxter Perry who tore through their batting lineup securing the big scalps of Bradley Alexander, Jeremy Weeks, Brett Jensz and Luke Smith. Perry finished with figures of 6/17 off 14.2 overs.
The Homers' innings got off to a bad start losing Luke Miller and Logan Millar for a duck and one run respectively. They battled to 5/69 at stumps.
On Sunday, Monty Wynne was the star for the Homers, scoring 39 with help from Joey Nagorcka and Chaminda Gamage to bring them to a total of 120 and a lead of 28 runs.
The Warriors came out firing in their second innings to pile runs on quickly and did so with an unbelievable innings from Bradley Alexander. He scored 83 runs off 52 balls hitting seven fours and five sixes in the process and with help from Nathan Alexander, 30 (13) and an unbeaten 17 from Jobe Dickinson, they declared at 3/141 with a lead of 113.
With 20 overs left in the day, the Homers started their fourth innings but only managed an over before rain halted play. That's where the game ended as they couldn't get back on with the Homers running out victors after claiming the first innings. Baxter Perry was named Man of the Match.
Perry was happy with his performance but reiterated it was a team effort.
"It all fell into place. There was movement off the pitch and I put it in the right areas which helped," he said.
"It's pretty cool. The whole team has worked well together and have reaped the rewards for it."
Captain Adam Atwood was thrilled with the win and proud of his team.
"The most pleasing thing about it is the young guys did it and it was impressive what they did," Atwood said.
"We were nervous Sunday morning. We only needed to chase 23 but you can get into your shell and lose wickets and Monty Wynne and Joey Nagorcka did insanely well to get us a lead.
"In the end, the rain took away what would have been an exciting finish but I was confident we could have batted out the 20 overs. I didn't want to lose for the boys so I was happy to go out there and take some bruisers to the body if it meant we won."
What was impressive about the win is the Homers battled into the finals on the back of some big losses against the Warriors. Atwood said the young players were rewarded and never gave up.
"The Warriors gave us a proper touch-up in the two-day game at Nhill and then flogged us in the one-day grand final and to keep them to the score we did proves that they are battlers and they did well," Atwood said.
"It's a reward for perseverance. There is a lot of 'enthusiasm of youth' in the team. The bowlers bowled well against the Bullants not conceding a run in an hour and then backed it up a week later against the premier bastmen of the competition was good to see.
"Hopefully this is the first of many premierships with the young group we have. We have developed the juniors over 10 years and there will be natural improvement so we are excited moving forward."
Warriors captain Jeremy Weeks said the Homers deserved the victory and whilst the loss was disappointing, they can be proud of their efforts.
"It was a little bit of a shame the rain ruined a cracking game of cricket and it would have been nice to get a few more overs," Weeks said.
"It's a bit disappointing we couldn't win the two-dayer but it was still a successful season and the boys played well. Credit to the Homers, they played great cricket over the two days and deserved the win.
"Baxter was sensational with his line and length and having Chaminda bowl alongside him caused us a lot of trouble and they were very damaging."
"We are still a relatively young side in cricketing terms and we will have a similar team next year and will come back and give it another crack."