City United capped off their centenary year with a famous victory in the Maitland first grade cricket grand final.
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Led by a fine 77 by skipper Matt Trappel and a six-wicket haul by spinner Nick Bower were able to overcome minor premiers Northern Suburbs by 51 runs after they posted 199 in their innings.
Trappel, who won the Chris Mudd shield and player of the final, said the victory helped erase memories of three consecutive grand final losses, including the 2014-15 and 2013-14 deciders against Norths.
“We had a lot of hard times over the past four years, but celebrating this is going to go a long way to making up for the disappointments of those grand final losses,” Trappel said.
“To celebrate a first grade premiership in our centenary year is great reward for not only the players, but all the people who work so tirelessly behind the scenes.
“Norths have been the benchmark all year, they have played great cricket throughout.
“We were never certain about the result until right up to the end, it was a great contest.
“A lot of times in grand finals against Norths we have been the other side of it as the losing side and it’s nice to get one back.”
Trappel said the commitment to push for the title came during a team meeting in the visitors rooms at Lorn Park just before Christmas.
“We knew we had to turn our year around and I asked them from that point ‘can we make sure we work hard, turn up and play hard cricket, fight for each other, play for one another and go and get a premiership’.
“The last few weeks what we’ve shown as a team and how we have come together is the the result of that commitment from the boys.”
Norths captain Michael Wilson praised City United for their fighting spirit in the grand final.
“We didn’t get the chocolates today but I couldn’t be more prouder of the way we played all season. We won the minor premiership pretty comfortably which reflected the consistent nature of the team’s performances.
“We introduced a number of younger players into first grade this year and they will be the players who will drive this team’s success well into the future.”
City United were also well served with the bat by Anru Kriel who contributed 42.
Norths batsman Josh Callinan typified the club’s fighting spirit with a determined 52 brought up with a six.
Callinan came in at 5-79 and despite wickets falling around him, Norths always looked a chance while he was at the crease.
He was finally caught on the boundary by Josh Adams, to become Nick Bower’s fifth victim. Bower cleaned up the tail when he had Kyle Branscombe caught behind by keeper Matthew Latham
It was a tough weekend for Northern Suburbs with all five teams losing their grand finals.
Norths remarkable effort to qualify teams in all five grades will no doubt spur the proud club onto bigger and better things next year.
Norths and Kurri Weston finally were able to start play on day two of their grand final at Robins Oval but led by paceman Alex Seamer were able to dismiss Norths short of the target.
Norths quest for five premierships across the grades came to an abrupt end on Saturday with their third, fourth and fifth grade teams all losing their grand finals.
Tenambit Morpeth Bulls had a 114-run win in third grade after batting first and scoring 5/242.
In fourths, City United were sent into bat and after a slow start manged to score 3/226 thanks to a century to Daniel Burford and 50 to Steven Atkins.
Atkins backed up with the ball and claimed 6-12 as Norths were dismissed for 118.
Eastern Suburbs defeated Norths in fifths by 121 runs.
Port Stephens claimed the A and B-grade titles with victories against Windsor Castle and Chelmsford Hotel respectively.
Lochinvar claimed the minor and major double by defeating Dungog in C Grade, Bowthorne won D-grade with against Tenambit Morpeth Bulls and Hinton took the E-grade title after chasing down Old Victoria’s 6/100.
In juniors, Raymond Terrace finished with the major-minor premiership double after play was not possible on the second day of their grand final against Northern Suburbs.
Eastern Suburbs won the under-15 and under-12 division 1 premiership, City United won under-14 title, , Northern Suburbs won under-13s and Dungog are under 12 division 2 premiers.