East Albury's seasoned opening attack and an ever-improving teenager guided the team to a four-wicket win over Albury in Cricket Albury-Wodonga provincial on Saturday.
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Brett Davies and Cameron White claimed three wickets apiece, while 19-year-old captain Miles Hemann-Petersen posted a second successive half-century.
"This year Miles asked me to take the new ball and I'm really bloody enjoying it, to be honest," Davies suggested.
"I love playing with Whitey, he's one of the competition's gentlemen."
After heavy rain on Friday evening, East won the toss and elected to bowl with the seam bowlers tearing through the visitors to leave them teetering at 6-59.
However, overseas imports Varun Chopra and Oliver Hald guaranteed Albury posted three figures.
The pair shared a 42-run stand and when Chopra was dismissed for 45, the lower order continued to fire with 35 and 31-run partnerships for the eighth and 10th wickets respectively.
Hald top-scored with 59 from only 51 deliveries, smacking six fours and three sixes.
The Danish international is quickly becoming a pivotal player in Albury's finals plans after taking a double hat-trick - five wickets in five balls - the previous week against Lavington.
Albury finished with a highly competitive 181 from 47.2 overs.
Hemann-Petersen, who racked up his 100th first grade game in October after debuting as a 13-year-old, led the charge with 73 from 116 balls, striking seven fours and a six.
"He had a slow start to the year, but his batting is really coming into its own in the last month or so," Davies revealed.
The skipper received support from Ayush Verma (27) and Caleb Hobbs (25), while Hald completed a strong match with 2-38.
"I'm stoked we're showing a bit of grit, East Albury teams over the last few years might have buckled chasing 180-200, but we've got a bit of fabric and resilience this year," Davies offered.
Meanwhile, Tallangatta jumped into the top six with a 73-run home win over St Patrick's.
The visitors sent the Bushies in, but Shoaib Shaikh quickly took the match away with a quickfire 92 from 80 deliveries.
Shaikh hammered 12 boundaries and two sixes, combining in a 154-run stand with Callum Brown.
The opener was dismissed on 92, while Brown contributed 62.
Nathan Thompson chipped in with 35 with the latter duo dismissed by Patties' captain Dean Nicholson, who was only the sixth bowler used, but finished with 3-73 from 10 overs, as the first five bowlers snared only three wickets.
Patties' opener Neil Smith returned to form with 77, while Nicholson rounded out a strong display with 36 at No. 7, including three sixes as the team was bowled out for 198 from 43.1 overs.
