After narrowly missing the cut for first grade due to a lower run quotient, Boorowa issued a sound warning to those remaining sides in second grade cricket by crushing Young JRL by seven wickets at the recreation ground last Saturday. The win was their fifth in six games and puts the team in first place on the

second grade table going into the Christmas break.

As they have done for most of the season so far, Boorowa gambled and bowled first on a lightning fast field with skipper Bennett winning the toss. They immediately had JRL on the back foot at 2/8 in the third over. JRL struggled to be 5/84 at the drinks break and then slumped even further to be 8/123 as the end of the innings appeared to be nigh. However an unbroken ninth wicket stand of 87 mainly due to an excellent unbeaten century by Jack McCrae saw JRL climb to 8/207 by the end of the allotted overs and suddenly the locals had a game on their hands. It was a disappointing last 10 overs in the field for Boorowa as they let JRL off the hook with some sloppy work albeit on a very difficult playing surface. For the first time this season Boorowa was asked to score above 200 for victory. The most successful of the bowlers were Rick Bennett and Jeremy Hewitt with two wickets each whilst Russell George and Cameron Johnston picked up one each.

The first mission of the Boorowa batsmen was to overcome the inform speedster Aaron Maxwell of JRL who has taken many scalps already this year. Openers Brendan Shean and Phil Coggins achieved this until over number seven when Coggo all of a sudden saw fresh air where his off stump used to be. He went for 10. Chris Dwyer suffered a similar fate being bowled for 5 and when Pysey was caught for 10, Maxwell had his third scalp with the score on 3/78. With the damage limited from the opening bowlers, Brendan Shean and Ricky Bennett then took the bowling apart with a superb unbeaten fourth wicket partnership of 135 to get the team home by seven wickets with 9 overs to spare. Rick was particularly brutal smashing 87 whilst Brendan batted the entire innings to finish with a well compiled 68. Both batted with great confidence and all goes well for the team if the batsmen can keep putting useful scores together.