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HE was billed as the most important player on the field in the lead up to the Independent Schools Association division two grand final and All Saints’ College all-rounder Tom Galvin delivered in spades on Saturday.
While a handful of his team-mates also made handy contributions, Galvin was the standout during a gripping eight-run win from the Bathurst side as they took the title over St Pius X at Watson Oval.
In tough batting conditions that saw batsmen struggling all day, Galvin top-scored with 57 as his team put together 7-135 after being sent in.
The next highest score for the day was just 27.
In their reply St Pius were always close, but the conditions meant that a tight finish was a possibility if All Saints’ could get their foot in the door.
Again Galvin stepped up to the mark, picking up 2-18 in a nearly faultless 10-over spell as the home side secured a memorable victory.
It was one that looked distant when the visitors needed 25 off eight overs with five wickets in hand.
“There was a lot of water around in the morning, particularly up one end, and we were delayed for a start until 11.30am which meant the overs were reduced to 46 a side,” winning coach Garth Dean said.
“It was tricky to decide what to do. We would have batted if we won the toss and were sent in anyway, though after a few overs I was starting to think it was going to get tough.
“We were in some trouble at 3-27 off 20 overs, but all season we’ve spoken about trying to bat out our overs and backing that it will give us a good enough score.
“Tom got great support from Alex Mitton [24], who has been batting well recently and we promoted him to five. They put on 81 and really got us in a much better spot.”
Given the context of the game, even a 12-run unbroken stand between debutant Ben Parsons (six) and Dave Cant (nine) proved handy for the Bathurst team.
In their reply, Pius got starts from Liam Mann (27), Dominic Easy (18), Jackson Brislan (15) and Luke Humphrey (15) and despite a good spell from Peter Cobcroft (2-12), were in a reasonably steady position going into the last drinks break.
However, one last effort led by Galvin along with Emerson Meehan (2-11) helped All Saints’ come from behind, sending their coach out a winner after 10 years in charge.
“It was a memorable finish, in a lot of ways when you win ugly it is more satisfying that say winning by 180 runs or something,” Dean said.
“Credit to Pius, they bowled very well and came here with some good plans, they batted carefully and played similar to us. It was just towards the end that they began to panic a little bit as the ball started to swing.
“At the last break we hadn’t really been in that situation all season where you have to defend and pick up wickets in a run-chase. All the games where we batted first, we won easily.
“We spoke about sticking to our plans though and backing them to work, and with some good catching and good bowling we were able to do that.”
The result means that the side look certain to line up in the division one competition next season, though they will do so without Mitton, James Keech and Adam Plummer.