BEECHWORTH jumped into second spot on the Wangaratta and District ladder at the Christmas break after winning its one-off T20 clash against Myrtleford on Saturday.
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Tight bowling limited the Saints to 107 at McNamara Reserve before Stuart Thomson continued his impressive run with the bat to lead the visitors to victory.
Losses for Corowa and City Colts catapulted the Wanderers into second with four one-dayers and just a pair of two-day fixtures remaining after Christmas.
Captain Brenton Surrey was delighted with the performance.
“It’s always pleasing to come away with the points in a T20,” he said.
“These games can hinge on one player having a half-hour period with the bat and the game is all over.”
Surrey gave credit to Thomson, who is averaging better than 40 this summer and racked up 71 against Myrtleford with nine fours and a six.
“Stuart has been batting really, really well,” he said.
“He is an accomplished batsman and it helps when the bowlers do a job with the ball and leave us chasing a relatively small total, he just worked his way through it — put the bad ball away and made the most of his innings.
“Chasing that sort of total we were really able to pace ourselves.”
But Surrey isn’t getting carried away with the team’s position on the ladder.
“It is certainly a good spot to be in — winning a few games before Christmas is a lot easier than trying to make up games later,” he said.
“We are a very young side and we struggled for consistency at the start of the season — the boys now understand they don’t have to bowl express or blaze away with the bat and in the past month we have seen that patience start to work in our favour.
“But these competitions aren’t won at Christmas.
“We have Yarrawonga straight after the break and a loss is likely to put us back in the pack.”
Surrey was also praised his young bowling line-up.
“The young blokes are doing a great job with the ball and stood up again on Saturday,” he said.
“Things could have gone against us but we stuck to the task and, led by Matt Hunt, they limited the damage.
“Every time you throw Matt the ball you know he will do a job — he’s in his mid 20s but has probably played eight seasons of A grade, whereas most of the others are teenagers.”
Elsewhere, Bruck showed its liking for the shortened format with a win over City Colts, Yarrawonga-Mulwala easily beat Corowa and Wangaratta saw off Rovers United in a low scoring battle.
