Sport
13 November, 2025
Positive round for Lions
A MIXED bag of results for the Noorat Terang Lions cricketers over the week with a number of positives shining through.
Noorat Terang’s division one premier team was chasing Russells Creek’s 8/269 declared at the Terang Turf, and resuming at 2-16 on day two the side was met with totally different weather conditions.
The start of play was delayed because of rain and there was a further rain delay later in the afternoon - and the ground played much slower than on day one.
There was only four more runs added to the score before Ryan Mottram lost his wicket.
Liam Geary continued on from the previous week and looked in control and was joined by Bailey Kavenagh.
The pair added 52 before Kavenagh went for 11.
Tyson Hay with 20 added 42 with Geary when Hay went, followed by Geary and O’Connor without addition to the score.
Geary looked in sight of 100 when a lapse in concentration cost him this feat, finishing on 78 off 134 balls with six boundaries and a six.
At 7/114 winning looked out of the equation.
The test was to see if they could bat out the remaining overs.
Gus Bourke and Tim Keane added 44 for the 8th wicket.
Keane made 30 and Bourke 20, while Luke Kenna was left stranded on 16 not out.
The Lions were dismissed for 183 after 73.3 overs.
Russells Creek had 11 overs to bat for additional bonus points and finished at 5-53.
Oscar Ritchie took his first wickets for the Lions with 2-8.
Bourke, Woodward and Darcy Abbott all took one each.
This weekend sees the start of a two-day game against Dennington at the Walter Oval.
Player unavailability put the pressure on the other two sides with three players making their club debut.
The division two Lions were at Port Fairy where they bowled first and struggled with the wind and bowled 29 wides.
Ollie Clarke in his first div two game starred with the ball, taking the best club bowling figures against Port Fairy with 4-29.
Another older junior had a day out with ball and bat, with Max Heffernan taking 3-34.
After 44 overs Port Fairy made an imposing 7-235.
In reply, David Conheady and Max Heffernan put on 89 for the first wicket, with Conheady 35 off 78 balls.
Ryan Lowth with 12 added 22 with Heffernan for the second wicket.
Heffernan made 69 off 120 balls with six boundaries and added 39 with another junior in Lachlan Primmer.
Primmer was out for 20 off 29 balls and after 44 overs the Lions were 5-161.
This weekend they return to the Terang Turf to take on Russells Creek.
Another father/son combination took the field in division four at Noorat against Nestles.
Leigh and Riley McIntosh both made their senior debuts for the Lions.
Nestles batted first and were dismissed for 87 with captain Jack Kenna taking the best figures with 3/29.
Sam Lillico bowled his best spell of the season taking 2-13 off seven overs.
Tom Conheady was miserly with 1-6 off eight.
Riley McIntosh only took two balls to take his first senior wicket.
Dean Abbott also took a wicket.
The Lions chased down the total in the 24th over.
Run machine Dean Abbott continued his form with the bat, knocking up 51 off only 54 balls with five fours and a six.
This week the division four Lions travel to Dennington for a rematch of last season’s grand finalists.
The juniors managed to win the under 13s and lose in the under 15s and 17s.
There wasn’t much separating the Mortlake Noorat Terang and Russells Creek teams after the first day.
Russels Creek continued its innings and was dismissed for 153.
Connor Jewell was the chief wicket taker with 3-5.
Alex Gubbins followed with 2-11 with single wickets to Leo Slater, Braxton Sachs and Lewi Taylor.
Returning to the crease for the run chase at 3-111, 43 was needed for victory.
Zach Dolling finished 29 not out and Zac Clarke 17 not out off only 20 balls.
Archer Gleeson made a handy 15 as the combination finished at 5-187.
Their next game is at Allansford where they will play the home side on Saturday morning.
The under 15s came up well short in their match against Mortlake.
Mortlake had set the Lions 215 to chase and only Lucia Clarke was able to reach double figures and was last out for 26 off 73 balls.
Their next game has been relocated to Allansford to play Allansford Panmure on Friday.
The under 17s had their two-day game reduced to a one-day game because of last week’s rain.
Off 24 overs Merrivale made an imposing 2-172 with Charlie Roberts and Ollie Clarke the only wicket takers.
Lachlan Primmer 44 off just 26 balls with four boundaries and three sixes and Max Heffernan 32 off 32 with one four and two sixes were the standouts.
No one else reached double figures and playing short were dismissed in the 23rd over for 106.
Next game is a two-day game at Noorat against West Warrnambool starting on Tuesday.