Ballarat Cricket Associations firsts – round 4, day 2 wrap from Saturday:
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BROWN HILL 8-155dec and 8-74 d MT CLEAR 135 and 98
REIGNING premier Brown Hill gave Mt Clear its first taste of defeat for the season, but it was far from that simple.
Either team could have secured the outright a tense wicket fest at Mt Clear.
Brown Hill did not have to do a lot to get first innings points, starting the day 3-99. While the Bulls won by only three wickets, it was a little more comfortable than that with two falling wickets at 132. It was then that the match opened right up though.
Tom Bourke-Finn sparked a Mt Clear second innings collapse, taking career-best figures of 7-31 from 14 overs to make an outright a possibility for Brown Hill.
It did not end up that simple. The Bulls also collapsed at the hands of Ash Gunn, 5-25 off 12 overs, and with Jason Knowles not available for Brown Hill, Mt Clear almost secured second innings points.
The Mounties finished within one wicket and on the other hand Brown Hill just five runs short.
NAP-SEBASTOPOL 204 d NORTH BALLARAT 144
A SERIES of solid batting performances was enough to see Napoleons-Sebastopol past North Ballarat's moderate target at St Patrick's College.
Naps-Sebas resumed at 0-9 and while never completely comfortable and far from convincing picked up the points with four wickets in hand.
Opener Ben Trew, 44 (5 fours), was the anchor early as Jacob Eyers, 20, Matt Ringin, 16, and Kyle Eyers, 16, all made starts.
Naps-Sebas looked comfortable at 3-94 with the departure of Trew, but the Roosters had other ideas.
With another two wickets and the scoreboard on 5-133 the game remained in the balance.
Carman Mapatuna steadied the ship with 39 (5 fours, 1 six) and paved the way for the win.
Luke Corden then enjoyed a free hit down the order with an unbeaten 30.
Matt Zakynthinos finished with the best figures of the game, taking 6-56 after some miserly spells by Jason Crosbie and Adam Eddy in another frustrating day for North Ballarat.
DARLEY 1-65dec and 1-52 d CORONET CITY 34 and 84
DARLEY completed an inevitable outright win and with it moved clear at the top of the ladder - unbeaten after four rounds.
Coronet City started the day at 5-61 in its second innings at Darley and a lead of just 30 runs.
While Coronet City lasted another 25 overs, all it did was delay what was always going to happen.
Captain Brad Laurent resumed on 15 and did all he could before being the last one out for 30 off 122 balls in 145 minutes.
Laurent and Shane Davies, 18, put on 37 for the sixth wicket.
The loss of Davies sparked a collapse as three wickets fell at 73.
Sajith Rupasingha returned his best figures since joining Darley last season, snaring 4-12 off 7.2 overs.
Harry Killoran did not get a chance to add to his haul of 3-5, while Heath Pritchard took 2-11.
Richard Moore, 18no, and Jake Wilkie, 23, rounded out an early finish for Darley.
WENDOUREE 8-190 d EAST BALLARAT 112 and 0-29
EAST Ballarat made it interesting in an other fairly predictable day across the competition.
Wendouree resumed well placed at 4-84 at Russell Square, but the Hawks managed to make it a little tighter than the Red Caps would have liked.
The cheap dismissals of Grant Bell and Liam Brady injected new life into the game as Wendouree slipped to 6-93.
It was enough for each team to pause and consider an unlikely result.
However, Matt Smith and Ryan Simmonds ensured there would be no upset and the day would belong to Wendouree.
Smith 19, and Simmonds, 34, dug deep and added a match-winning stand of 32.
With the wind out of East Ballarat's sails, Eamon Johnson then hit a quickfire 34 (3 fours, 2 sixes).
Adam Ransom took 3-32 for East and Peter Colbourne 2-21.
Colbourne and Harli Givvens then batted out the day for East Ballarat without loss.