Wallington made an early statement with a commanding round 1 victory against Collendina when the 2025/26 Bellarine Peninsula Cricket Association A2 Grade season got underway on Saturday October 4.
Runners-up last season, Wallington produced a nine-wicket victory in the eagerly awaited clash that turned out to be very lopsided.
Led by English import Billy Gravett, the Wallabies restricted the dangerous Collendina batting line-up to 9/127 from 40 overs.
Gravett took 4/17 from eight overs in a sign that he will continue to be one of the dominant fast bowlers in the comp.
Stan Grazotis made 53 and Corey Walter 23, but Dane Wise-Graham (2/18) and Shaun Biemans (2/20) both produced outstanding eight-over efforts.
The effort exceeded captain Mitch Sleeman’s cut-off of 160 as a par score.
“They’ve got some dangerous hitters,” he said.
“Even (Richard) Brown towards the end of the innings can clear the fence so we’re always wary that they still could score quite quickly towards the end. But when you’ve got someone with Billy’s pace you can run through sides and also having the luxury with Colin Smith’s first eight going for something like 14 or 15 runs, but he picked up Corey’s wicket and that’s what set us on our way.”
Wallington chased the target down with nine wickets and 14 overs to spare to receive an early season percentage boost.
Henry McIntosh picked up where he left off last season with a sparkling 92 not out from 89 deliveries and Nick Adamson played a stabilising role with 32 from 60. The duo shared a 125-run partnership with Wallington ending the game on 1/128 despite Grazotis’ tight spell of 0/7 from five overs.
“Nick’s going to play an anchor role pretty much all year with Henry,” Sleeman said.
“We have pretty much a staggered role with Sven (Burluraux) and Jack (Davies),who are more technique batters and then also so Richie (Faust), Henry, Max (Roxburgh), Dane and Billy are sort of our pinch hitters that were going to probably throw around the order throughout the year.”
If there was a negative in such a big win, only two Wallabies’ batters got to spend time at the crease, but it is a good problem to have and the season is only one game old.
St Leonards and Surf Coast played out a nailbiter with the Saints getting up by one run.
Needing four to win off the last ball, the Suns had dug themselves out of a hole chasing 140 for victory.
A hamstring injury to Harrison Ryan meant he had to hobble to the crease for the final ball, but with the aid of a runner hit the ball behind square for two, leaving his side one run short of a tie.
Nick Hallam (47) top scored for the Saints earlier in the day while Lachie Campbell grabbed three wickets for Surf Coast against his old side.
Campbell also top scored for the Suns with 30 and Akashvir Singh got his team back into the game with 28, but the Saints held their nerve with Will Stovell’s seamers yielding 3/27 and Oscar Cutajar taking 1/10 from eight overs in his first game as a Saints.
Portarlington chalked up a win against an improved Newcomb.
Shane Healey made 65 with Newcomb posting a competitive 8/172 while Tom Stewart started the season off well with three wickets for Port.
In reply, Jack Baldi made an unbeaten 59 and Cam Gourley 57 with the Demons getting the runs with six wickets and 17 deliveries in hand.
Winchelsea chased down a decent total against Ocean Grove to open the season in winning style.
Grove made 6/176 batting first with Shaun Fankhauser (70) and Fletcher Long (44) playing well, sharing a 109-run second wicket partnership.
Shane Currie bowled well with the new ball to snare 3/22 for the Kookaburras.
Winch skipper Shane Murdoch played a superb innings that ended on 73 not out and was there for the winning runs, which the Kookas got with five wickets and four deliveries to spare. Campbell Snookes’ eight overs yielded just 13 runs while Connor Weidemann started his Ocean Grove journey with 2/26.
A2 GRADE
Wallington 1/129 (H. McIntosh 92no, N. Adamson 32) def Collendina 9/127 (S. Grazotis 53, C. Walter 23, B. Gravett 4/17, D. Wise-Graham 2/18)
Winchelsea 5/177 (S. Murdoch 73no, M. Simons 24no, C. Weidemann 2/26) def Ocean Grove 6/176 (S. Fankhauser 70, F. Long 44, S. Currie 3/22)
Portarlington 4/173 (C. Gourley 57, J. Baldi 59no, B. Toole 28, S. Anderton 2/20) def Newcomb 8/172 (S. Healey 65, T. Stewart 3/25, J. Tilders 2/28)
St Leonards 139 (N. Hallam 47, B. White 25, L. Campbell 3/26) def Surf Coast 9/138 (L. Campbell 30, A. Singh 28, W. Stovell 3/27)
