Runs, wickets, rain and excitement

Gracemere wicketkeeper Mark O’Keeffe takes a return with plenty of backing from team-mates.

THERE was a bit of everything for cricket lovers at Rockhampton Cricket Ground on Saturday, with a couple of big hundreds, a nine-wicket haul, an exciting finish and the odd shower of heavy rain.

The Frenchville against Norths Tigers game was expected to be a clear-cut win, with the only question mark being whether Frenchville could force the outright win.

Instead it turned into a thriller.

Norths needed someone to stand up and have a good knock if it was to have any chance of getting near the Falcons total of 341.

Craig Wilkes turned out to be the man, arriving at the wicket with his team at 2-38 and then facing 180 balls to score 160 runs.

When Wilkes departed his team was 9-311. Unfortunately Norths was unable to bat the full 80 overs, or it might have got even closer to toppling the Falcons.

Frenchville’s paceman Brock Siegert had a tough day, sending down 25 overs to claim a five-wicket bag.

Trent Kenny had a bit of fun towards the end of the Norths innings, claiming three wickets in less than three overs.

Wilkes did get support, with Justin Peacock getting to 42 before losing his wicket.

The Falcons have a week off before meeting Gracemere or Brothers in the final, with Frenchville out to make it five titles in a row.

While the Brothers versus Gracemere game was, in theory, a rehearsal for next weekend’s semi-final it is hard to see the game going to a similar pattern when the teams meet again.

After Gracemere eventually got to a total of 211 last week and had Brothers struggling at 5-31 it was expected Brothers might stage a late-order revival.

It never happened.

Ben Milne had wrecked the Brothers top order and he did exactly the same to the tail to finish with the remarkable figures of 9-33 as Brothers innings closed at just 64 runs.

With a pace bowler in that sort of form it is of little surprise Gracemere captain Michael Harth enforced the follow-on.

Brothers were not caught out by the young speedster a second time, as Milne was unable to complete a 10-wicket haul for the match, going for 0-58 in the second innings.

Murray Harch went for his shots to score 135 runs as Brothers prevented Gracemere from gaining the outright victory that would have added a little bit of pressure to Frenchville in its bid to clinch the minor premiership.

“It is very difficult going back-to-back in the field,” Harth said.

The Gracemere captain said the Murray Harch innings was a good effort.

“He rode his luck a bit. He took a liking to Ben’s (Milne) bowling,” he said.

The two teams meet in a two-day game at the Rockhampton Cricket Ground starting on Saturday.

The winner of that game will play Frenchville on March 27 and 28.