26 — Centralian Advocate, Tuesday, February 26, 2013

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Shane’s Cup runneth over

Dale Fletcher

IMPARJA Cup founder ShaneFraney cannot describe the pridein his heart when it comes to theannual indigenous cricket event inthe Red Centre.

Franey, who started the tourna-ment with a match between AliceSprings and Tennant Creek in1994 said every year was betterthan the previous.

He said he and Les Knox hadput in place a five-year plan tobuild up the tournament.

‘‘What can I say, mate? This isjust beautiful,’’ Franey said.

‘‘It’s amazing isn’t it? What a

great feeling to see all these peopleenjoying the week.

‘‘The week has got a lot biggerthan what I had ever thought wewould get to . . . looking back, it’syes and no, but this is very close towhat we had in mind.’’

The Darwin Major Centres’two-time title winner said therewas only one last frontier beforethe Imparja Cup could be deemeda success.

‘‘We just need one of ourbrothers in a baggy green,’’ hesaid.

Franey was an integral part ofthe Darwin victory on Saturday,taking two wickets in two balls ashis side defeated the MaranoaMurries by 93 runs in the decider.

But, he didn’t know he was on ahat-trick when he took over aswicketkeeper the next over.

‘‘Are you serious? Those guysripped me off then. I’ll have to talkto the captain about that,’’ he said.

‘‘I had no idea about that. But itwas great to win again.’’

Franey was full of praise for histeammates, saying it was a realfamily affair.

‘‘My son captains the side andthere are uncles and nephews inthe team and a few younger boys,which is great to see,’’ he said.

The win was extra special forFraney, some two decades sinceafter his tournament began.

‘‘It’s a long time ago and it’s

great I’m still able to play andcontribute,’’ he said.

‘‘We are always going to comeback and go for the ‘three-peat’next year.’’

Franey was all praise for every-one involved with the week-longevent, but made special mention ofteammate Colin Lamont.

‘‘He (Lamont) was due for a fewruns today and he was two short ofwhat would have been a specialcentury,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s those types of stories thatmake Imparja Cup so special. He isawesome.’’

Bushgirlsace itDale Fletcher

IMPARJA CUP

BUSH Potatoes haverun away with a 21-runwin to take out theWomen’s CommunityImparja Cup againstCongress 1 at FlynnDrive in Alice Springson Saturday.

The locally-based sidewent through the tour-nament undefeatedand captain ChristinePonter was thrilledwith the level of sports-manship throughoutthe week-long event.

‘‘Everyone had a balland we won every game,but it was the enthusi-asm which was thehighlight,’’ Ponter said.

‘‘We weren’t strict onthe fundamentals ofthe game, we justwanted as many indi-genous girls to get outthere and have a go.’’

Best afield Nadia Coxand Carmen Butcherboth made 30 for theBush Potatoes, while LaSaville combined an un-beaten 14 with two cru-cial wickets, as the de-fending championsrestricted Congress tojust 7-97 from their 14overs.

Tess Garoni topscored for Congress 1with 29, while SheraleeFitz added 14.

‘‘We were basically alocal team with an im-port from Mount Isawho wanted to play,’’Ponter said.

‘‘It was a real teameffort today; Carmenwas fabulous everygame and Nadia wasjust dynamic.

‘‘Angel Akarana be-hind the stumps toowas electric but thehighlight for me was64-year-old WendyC o c h r a n e , j u s tfantastic.’’

Ponter also was incharge of the AliceGrubs team and shehopes there will bemore teams in nextyear’s event.

‘‘This level is all aboutgetting new players toplay and if we can get afew of these girls intoclub cricket then I’msure there will be a flow-on effect from there,’’she said.

West climb to top of ladderCRICKET

Warren Thomson

Gapview Works’ Dan Gardinerhits out against West on Sunday

Picture: CHARLIE LOWSON

WEST has an outright lead at thetop of the A-grade one-day ladderafter defeating Gapview Works bysix wickets on Sunday at AlbrechtOval.

A great team bowling performancebowled out Gapview Works for 101 inthe 33rd over.

Imparja Cup import Jack Flynn,

Paul Scarfone, Simon Coutts andLeith Hiscox took two wickets each,while Jayden Dick bowled well for his1/10 off six overs.

West were at 3/24 in their runchase, but a 36-run partnership be-tween Ross Fraser and Hiscox gotWest back in the box seat.

Then Fraser went on to make anunbeaten 56 as he combined withNick Whyte to get their side home in19 overs.

Fraser has batted well all season,

and he was pleased to finally score ahalf-century.

‘‘The boys have kept saying to see itthrough and I’m really pleased as itwas an important win for us,’’ he said.

‘‘It was a good track and I managedto have a few good partnerships andspend time in the middle. We had 45overs to get 100 runs, so our plan wasjust to be positive.’’

It was an important win as theBloods need to keep ahead of FederalASbuild and Gapview Works, who

both have one game in hand.

‘‘It’s really tight and that is greatfor Alice Springs cricket,’’ Frasersaid.

‘‘We’re just looking forward tobagging a couple more wins andgetting into the final.’’

Dan Gardiner top-scored forGapview Works with a valuable 32and Ben Ellis chipped in with 18. Ellisthen took 3/38 off seven overs, whilehis captain Alex Marsh took 1/30from nine overs.

Rovers’ first win bowls over DemonsCRICKET

Warren Thomson

Harry Weeks

PROBUILD Rovers havewon their first A-grade gameof the season, defeating Fed-eral ASbuild by four wicketso n S u n d a y a t J i mMcConville Oval.

Chasing 149 to win, HarryWeeks and Daniel Clarke gotPROBuild Rovers off to agood start with a 52-run part-nership getting them to 2/63.

Weeks was out for 26, whileClarke hung around in a fewmore partnerships until he

was dismissed on 29 at 5/109.

PROBuild Rovers captainMatt Paterson-Nicolai thenproduced a valuable cap-tain’s knock, scoring an un-beaten 34 to get his side homewith one over remaining.

Earlier in the day, the triowere superb with the ball,taking three wickets each,while Robert Maloney tookthe final wicket.

Paterson-Nicolai waspleased for his side to finallyget some reward for the hardwork they’ve put in thisseason.

‘‘We’ve done a lot of hardwork and it’s good we finallywon one,’’ he said.

‘‘We talked about aboutbatting in partnerships andbatting out our overs and weknew that if we batted outour 45 overs, we would winthe game.

‘‘We tried different things.We opened up the bowlingwith (spinner) Harry Weeks,who did great and got awicket in his first over.

‘‘We saved Daniel Clarke,who is our best bowler, forthe middle overs and he did

well, so he and Harry set upboth our batting and ourbowling.

‘‘Robert Maloney andMitch Hattam both bowledwell. Everyone chipped in.’’

It was a disappointing re-sult for Federal ASbuild, butthe main positive was SamClifton’s 66 in his first gameback, and NT under-13 repre-sentative Tom Nixon stoodup to score an unbeaten 15.

They combined for a greatpartnership to get their sidefrom 8/77 to 9/141 and event-ually all out for 148.