Lavington topples North Albury in CAW provincial grand final

The third last over of the match swung the momentum back to Lavington after the Hoppers looked a genuine chance to post another remarkable escape.

Haydyn Roberts and Brendan Simmons had played superbly in a 90-run stand, leaving North with 28 needed from the last 16 balls.

However, Simmons pulled a thigh high full toss from Chris Galvin to deep square leg where Ryan Brown held the catch and from the next ball, Roberts squirted another full ball to Sam Harris at mid-off.

So after a series of stunning escapes in the past two years, North's run was over.

"They were genuine full tosses, the ball was pretty slippery (after the rain), but I was just trying to execute yorkers and obviously over-pitched, luckily they went to hand, they weren't great balls," Galvin revealed.

Galvin was the sixth bowler used, highlighting Lavington's pace bowling stocks, but the right-arm medium pacer finished with a match-winning 4-36 from seven overs.

It was the first time he'd taken more than two wickets in an innings this year and was also the second-best figures of his first grade career, which started in 2014-15.

Earlier, Lavington opener Matt Sharp made the Hoppers pay for a dropped chance.

The Riverina representative bunted a Jake Burge full toss to Ryan Addison at mid-off in the eighth over and the English product dropped the simple low chance.

Sharp was 10 at the time and top-scored with 86 from 131 deliveries, including 11 boundaries.

He combined in a 105-run stand with Nathan Brown and then the latter and Jayden Beaumont blasted 63 runs for the fifth wicket.

Brown claimed the Gary Williamson Medal as the best player after smashing 82 from just 77 balls, with six boundaries and four sixes.

"Their power hitting at the end was probably the difference and our death bowling probably wasn't good enough," North skipper Ryan Addison said.

The Panthers' 5-233 was their second-highest score and they then removed openers Ash Borella and Matt Condon for 18 apiece.

The Hoppers moved to 4-99 off 29 overs, but a 17-minute rain delay meant two overs were lost and the winning target came back to 228.

At 6-110, the Hoppers found something, just like they did in the three previous finals

However with five overs left, they still needed 55 runs, but plastered 18 from Ryan Brown's over.

Michael Galvin bowled darts to restrict Simmons and Roberts and then brother Chris halted the duo's run on 43 and 56 respectively.

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North was 9-216 - 12 runs short - at 6.57pm.

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