City United beat Raymond Terrace to book the final spot in the Maitland first grade cricket semi-finals.
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City’s 38-run win at Jack Collins Oval delivered old rivals Northern Suburbs the minor premiership but they had to rely on Kurri Weston beating Western Suburbs to take part in the semi-finals and the chance to defend their 2016/17 premiership.
A devastating 97 off just 38 balls by Warriors batsman Daniel Foster spearheaded Kurri Weston’s total of 9/304. Foster was bowled early in his innings off a no ball and after having Warriors in trouble at 3/22 early things fell apart in the field for the Plovers with two regulation catches dropped as well.
Justin Kavanagh made 67 and Steve Abel was not out 45.
Wests batted out to their overs to pass 200 with the loss of eight wickets to give Kurri Weston the win..
Great news for City but disappointment for the Warriors who finished one-point outside the top four despite their magnificent run to win the final three games of the season to rise from the bottom of the ladder.
Thornton go into the finals with the best recent form of any team extending their winning run to four with victory against Eastern Suburbs at East Maitland Park after posting 195.
Easts were unable to recover from a four wicket spell by Chris Archer.
Thornton have won six of their past seven games including victories against all three finals rivals and a narrow loss to Raymond Terrace after being in control of the game.
City United rallied from 6/61 to make 9/128 thanks to a fine 40 from Michael Heinrich and 29 not out by Jason Morris.
City’s bowlers made regular breakthroughs with Jock Vivers and Heinrich both finishing with three-wicket hauls.
However, Nick Bower’s 2-12 off 10 overs had the most impact on the Raymond Terrace batting line-up which has struggled for the third game in a row.
Aaron Bills top scored with 23 not out and Shannon Bills with 18 was the only other batsman to reach double figures.
Norths (first) play City (fourth) and Terrace (2nd) meet Thornton (third) in next weekend’s two-day semi-finals.