Tara Murray
Donnybrook has claimed its first minor premiership in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association Russell Pollock Shield.
In just its third season in the VTCA, Donnybrook had made improvement each season and is now going to feature in its first final series.
Donnybrook is 10 points clear with one round remaining having lost just one match for the season.
Donnybrook president Noel Seipolt said they had been hoping to see this improvement this season.
“It’s been not too bad, it has been good,” he said. “We recruited a few players and our pitches have gotten better.
“We are only in our third season and our ones are on top of the ladder.”
Seipolt said this season they had been keen to play finals after not being far off last year.
He said to have only lost one game was really good and hoped it would continue into finals.
“Cricket is a stupid game at times, you never know what will happen,” he said.
“We wanted to play finals and now we want to go all the way.”
On Saturday, Donnybrook accounted for Melton Centrals in the battle between top and bottom.
Donnybrook made 9-269 before restricting Centrals to 152 on Saturday.
Raja Sandhu was the pick of the bowlers for Donnybrook, taking 5-35.
Seipolt said as well as the success of their first XI, they had three two-day synthetic sides on top of the ladder.
He said overall it had been a strong season for the club.
“We’ve had 16 sides this year,” he said. “It’s grown out of control.
“We could have probably had a couple more junior sides if we had more people to run them.
“Hopefully that side of things, we get better as we go and hopefully we’ll have a few more helpers in the next few years.
Donnybrook finishes its division 5 season against Barkly St Uniting in a one-dayer on Saturday.
In other results, Jacana easily accounted for Wyndham Vale.
Having made 7-284, the Jaguars bowled Wyndham Vale out for 193.
