A lot can be said about a weekend of Grand Final cricket, but the bottom line is winners are grinners and Mt Evelyn Cricket Club are celebrating three premierships from the 2024-25 season after the Community Bank – Mt Evelyn 1st XI and the Lilydale Tyres 5th XI joined the club’s Under 14 team in tasting the ultimate glory.
The Community Bank – Mt Evelyn 1st XI is the toast of the town after outlasting South Warrandyte in a classic Grand Final that went late into day two. The Mounters found their form at the right time of the season after struggling with consistency throughout the season. At times it looked as if they were in danger of missing the finals altogether. After creeping into fourth place, the team put together a brilliant month of cricket where they had to show their best to surpass Seville, Warrandyte and South Warrandyte on their way to premiership glory.
Mt Evelyn captain, Troy Hancock, won the toss and duly elected to bat first in a game that promised to be a high-scoring affair. After the early wicket of Jesse Fraser, Adam Smith and Jake Blackwell, who have shown great composure across the final series, dug in to occupy the crease against some disciplined bowling. The pair would be patient on a slow Colman Park surface where swift run-making proved difficult. Knowing they had the firepower in the shed for a late flurry, the pair looked to occupy the crease and keep the wickets in the bank. Although on the surface, a score of 1/78 at tea off 38 overs looked a little light on, the Mounters knew that the acceleration was yet to come.
The partnership would finally be broken with the score on 99 when Smith was run out for another useful contribution of 46. The celebrations would be short-lived for the Hawks as Daniel Giblin would join Blackwell at the crease and the run rate would slowly build. After a torrid season, Giblin would find his feet in the biggest contest of the year, and the pair would go on to score vital half-centuries for the Mounters. Blackwell would finally be dismissed for 58, another masterful contribution to the Mounters’ final run. Hancock would come and go quickly, and when Giblin holed out for 55, the innings looked to be petering out. Former captain Daniel Fraser would have none of it, and he would ramp up the pressure on the tiring Hawks’ bowlers and would plunder an unbeaten, run-a-ball, 57 which would see the score closed on 9/268. A more than competitive total in a Grand Final, but if the Hawks could find the same application, it wasn’t insurmountable.
The Mounters would make the ideal start on day two when Darcy Fraser would remove opener Troy Donis early, but the Hawks would go on unperturbed. Thomas Peter-Budge would anchor the innings, whilst the competition’s premier bat, Morgan Persson-Clark would start pushing back against the Mounters with a free-flowing innings. The pair’s 98-run partnership would take the Hawks to within reach of the afternoon tea break and was on the brink of breaking a Mt Evelyn team devoid of answers to the partnership. Persson-Clark would eventually bite off more than he could chew, holing out off the bowling of Bohdie Jones on the eve of the break. Sean McMahon would follow after the break and suddenly there was a pep in the step of the Mounters. Peter Budge would continue his stout resistance and would find some valuable support from Fraser Day. Like Giblin, Day has endured a wretched season, but class finds a way, and he hit his straps in the Grand Final. His stroke play threatened to take the game away from the visitors as he willed his team to the brink of victory. With eight overs to go, the equation was 42 with four wickets in hand. The time had come to own the moment. Day would be run out courtesy of some quick work from Hancock and the game swung in the Mounters’ favour.
Darcy Harris would give the visitors some nervous moments with some lusty hitting, but the Mounters would hold their nerve. In the shadows of stumps, Hancock would take the final two wickets to lead the Mounters into raptures as they would secure a memorable 17-run victory. Hancock would be the pick of the bowlers with 3/64 whilst Darcy Fraser’s uncanny knack of taking wickets collecting 3/66. Caleb Hrabe would follow his marathon effort in the Preliminary Final bowling 17 overs up front for a miserly 31 runs to keep the visitors in the contest early on day two. Blackwell capped off an amazing finals series, where he would score 178 runs and take 8 wickets, by taking away the Grand Final Man of the Match medal. The win sees the club rise to Wilkins Cup for the 2025-26 season, a challenge the club will relish.
The third premiership for the club was won by the Lilydale Tyres 5th XI who capped off a season that was destined for glory the further the season went on. The team had sat in the top two on the ladder for the entire season with only three blemishes to their record, twice against Kilsyth and once against Templeton. After knocking Templeton out in the Semi-Final and Kilsyth falling victim against Montrose in the other Semi, the Mounters were left to take on the Wolves in the final game of the season.
Montrose would bat first and would make a fair fist of their 36 overs. The Wolves would take the fight up to favourites and would bat gamely on the back of a well-made 41 from Gary Mangnall and an unbeaten 39 from Nathan Close. The Mounters would keep their cool throughout the innings and it was the season’s leading bowler Ben Dunstone who would again star for his team taking 3/26. In the end, the Wolves would compile a more than competitive total of 8/159.
For much of the chase, the Mounters looked in control, primarily courtesy of patient knocks from Alastair Churchill and Leighton Joyce. Churchill played a brilliant innings, a true Grand Final innings. Cautious at the beginning of his innings, mindful of not heaping pressure on the batsmen to come, when the time was needed to amp up the run rate his innings flourished with a flurry of boundaries, including a six to put an exclamation mark on his innings as he retired for an entertaining half-century. Craig Steele would come and go quickly, and when Joyce was dismissed for 30, there was still plenty to do for the Mounters to secure victory. Craig Kenins looked as if he had the experience and skill set to nurse the home team to victory, but he too would fall after making a promising start to his innings. His wicket would leave the contest on a knife’s edge.
With 25 runs to score off the last five overs, the game would turn on an epic finish as some reckless running between wickets and tight bowling would produce tense moments for players and fans alike. Eventually, Paul Flavel and Ben Dunstone would hold their nerve to guide the Mounters to a six-wicket victory with just eight balls to spare. Great reward for an all-round team performance in not only the Grand Final, but for the entire season. The beauty of this victory would be the coming together of families and friends with this team built on a father/son culture that made the victory all the more special and memorable.
Ben Dunstone would cap off a memorable month of cricket with premierships in the Under 14’s and 5th XI, with him collecting ‘double danglers’ in both games for best on-ground performances. An incredible achievement for someone so young.
