Darley enters its Christmas break a happy team after a comprehensive win against Brown Hill in the Ballarat Cricket Association.
The Lions entered day two of the match confident of getting the job done, having made 8-291 on the back of a century by Lachlan Herring on day one.
The Lions were barely troubled by Brown Hill as wickets fell regularly through the day. Brown Hill was dismissed for 166, still 125 runs short of the Lions’ total.
Sri Lankan allrounder Hasitha Wickramasinghe starred with the ball, his canny off-breaks claiming 5-43. The Lions used six bowlers, with four of the others taking one wicket each.
Lions skipper Heath Pritchard said it was a great team performance with the ball.
“They all bowled really well on a flat wicket,” he said.
“It was always going to be hard to get the runs and we put the screws in from the start. Hasitha got most of the wickets, but everyone bowled exceptionally well.”
The Lions enter the Christmas break a week early, with a bye next round.
With six points for the bye, they will stay equal top on points no matter the results this weekend, which is something they would have taken at the start of the season.
Currently, the top five sides – the Lions, Wendouree, Golden Point, Mt Clear and East Ballarat – are equal on 21 points, the Lions on top due to percentage having won three matches.
“If we’d lost this match we would have been 2-2 and slipped from the top four,” Pritchard said.
“Besides a couple of hours against Mount Clear, we’ve played some really good cricket – really, it’s been just one bad patch for the season.
“We’re full of confidence.”
Pritchard said the club would continue to train this week. It also has a T20 match on Thursday night against Wendouree.
“I’ve never experienced a bye in cricket before,” the captain said.
“We’ll keep training as it’s such a long time until we play again. Some of the boys still want to have a hit. We didn’t bat [Saturday] and won’t get that chance until next year now.
“We’ll watch the twos play this Saturday.
“A few of the ‘ones’ guys will play Thursday night, but a few of us older players will have the match off.”
Other winners on Saturday were Golden Point, Wendouree and Napoleons-Sebastopol.
