Defending champions City Colts take out BDCA second grade crown

Murray was able to capitalise on several missed Bulls opportunities to dismiss him as he top scored with 85 in Colts' total of 256, before Smith (5-87) and Stephen (4-40) took nine wickets between them to have Centennials all out for 131 at Morse Park 1.

Smith and Stephen bowled 44 straight overs combined before skipper Brad Molenkamp picked up the winning wicket five balls into his first over.

The pressure was on Colts to take out the final not only as the defending champion but after also finishing as this season's minor premiers but they lived up to the billing in the game that matters most.

"It's back-to-back premierships for second grade. We had the core group from last year but also some new faces, which was great to see," Molenkamp said.

"Matt Stephen and Matt Lawson came into the team, and unfortunately Lawso couldn't be here for the final but he's been a fantastic participant all year.

"As minor premiers you deserve to win it but there's never any givens when it comes to cricket, is there?

"Centennials played well. They dropped a couple of catches but we didn't drop any, and that's what can make the difference."

Molenkamp also made mention of his side's use of 37 different players in second grade throughout the course of the season, with the club's depth being one of his biggest takeaways from the 2022-23 season.

There was also some much needed depth on show in Colts' batting lineup during an innings of several twists and turns.

Colts' David Smith struck a quick-fire 30 after the loss of an early wicket for his team while Robert Clifford put on 15 at the other end.

Murray was then given a lifeline on zero when he was dropped, and it wouldn't be the last time that he would get away with an errant swipe with the bat.

However, when Centennials couldn't make the most of those follow up chances Murray went on with the job.

He hit 10 boundaries over the course of his knock, making the bulk of his runs with Stephen (40) up the other end in a 95 run partnership.

Additional late runs came the way of Colts thanks to efforts from Paul Morris (36 not out) and James Smith (15).

Centennials' Aaron Thorn toiled away over 24 overs for his figures of 3-75 while Jake Miller cleaned up the Colts tail with his figures of 3-45.

There were starts aplenty to be found throughout the Bulls batting order but sadly for them no-one was able to turn one of those into a match winning knock before either Smith and Stephen brought their day to an end.

The best resistance from Bulls came via their middle order pairing of Paul Birch (27) and Leigh Bourke (26), who put on 53 runs for the fourth wickets.

Opener Jake Miller (18) and number seven batter Craig Windus (20) also got off to reasonable starts before they both fell to Smith.

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