TOORADIN’s Callum O’Hare has continued his blistering late season form and taken the outright lead in the inaugural Pakenham Gazette Cricketer of the Year Award for Premier Division.
O’Hare snared three votes for his six wicket in an innings, nine wickets for the match performance against Beaconsfield on Saturday with that performance being the fifth game in a row where the all-rounder has been in the best two players on the park.
This new award is an initiative by the Gazette to recognise the best cricketers in the region and the winners in all three senior divisions will receive a framed colour montage trophy of their season with the winner in Premier division also receiving a voucher from Sports-Power Pakenham.
PREMIER
Kooweerup’s Chris O’Hara was in prime position to poll votes after a four-wicket haul on day one of the Demons clash with Cardinia and he capitalised with a gritty 92 against the Bulls on Saturday.
O’Hara’s three vote performance moves him to outright third position behind Callum O’Hare and Chris Smith (135), who had three votes snatched away from him by Pakenham’s Jason Williams who made a classy 139 in the Lions win.
Upper Beaconsfield’s Chris Pentland was the other to score maximum points after his five wicket first innings haul set-up the Maroons comfortable outright victory over Officer.
With two rounds remaining there are six players still in contention for the award.
PREMIER DIVISION LEADERS
16 – Callum O’Hare (Tooradin)
15 – Chris Smith (PUT)
14 – Chris O’Hara (Kooweerup)
13 – Neil Barfuss (Cardinia)
11 – Dwayne Doig (Cardinia)
11 – Michael Giles (Kooweerup)
DISTRICT
It’s hard to go past Peter Zauner when he tees up eight St Francis Xavier batsmen and returns them to the sheds. Zauner’s match figures of 8/78 ruined any chance of the X-Men fighting out of trouble. Darren O’Brien’s 165 not out was too hard to look past for the triple votes from Devon Meadows however, despite how well Zauner bowled. Jess Mathers couldn’t squeeze in around triple vote getter Adam Newstead (108 and 3/73), team mate Uma Rattan (85 and 3/30) or Catani’s James McMahon (101) to narrow the gap to a single vote with two matches left.
DISTRICT DIVISION LEADERS
15 – Jess Mathers (Merinda Park)
14 – Peter Zauner (Devon Meadows)
11 – Clint Marsh (Emerald)
10 – Sam Vanderzalm (NNG/Maryknoll)
10 – Chris Lewis (NNG/Maryknoll)
SUB-DISTRICT
Lee Murdoch was the only top dog to poll this week in Sub-District, taking three votes as the Rebels rebelled against expectation to knock-off competition heavyweight Lang Lang. Murdoch’s 5/62 just edged out Rogan Fraser’s 6/69, who in any other match would’ve polled the maximum. Bodie Brown is yet to return from injury and the other leaders unable to match stride with their triple vote getting team mates.
SUB-DISTRICT DIVISION LEADERS
13 – Lee Murdoch (Cran Meadows)
12 – Bodie Brown (Lang Lang)
10 – Dean Williams (Clyde)
10 – Ash Bailey (NNG/Maryknoll)
9 – Brent Murdoch (Cran Meadows)
