East Ballarat has snapped a 13-year Ballarat Cricket Association firsts premiership hiatus.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Hawks took the honours on first innings over North Ballarat after a rain interrupted fourth day at the Eastern Oval on Sunday.
Stumps were drawn for the last time with East Ballarat four runs short of securing an outright win as rain swept across the ground.
Final scores: East Ballarat 140 and 3-150 d North Ballarat 131 and 162.
This gives the Hawks three premierships since they took on the name of East Ballarat in 1990-91 and their first since going back-to-back in 2004-05 and 2005-06.
East Ballarat captain Josh Brown said the grand final victory was the culmination of "so much effort over the past few years and the five or six years before that".
He said the second innings batting performance had been pivotal, with losing just three wickets crucial to the result.
Veteran Carl Haseloff led the charge with the bat on day four, making a spritely 33 with seven boundaries to get the innings up and going.
Rain caused issues across all facets of the game for East Ballarat and North Ballarat with constant stoppages in play on Saturday and Sunday.
North Ballarat resumed at 2-43 on Saturday - needing to get an outright to deny East Ballarat the premiership
Matt Zakynthinos, 37, and Connor Miles, 43, put on 71 as the Roosters reached 8-141 at the end of play.
Dylan Price, 39no, led an early flurry of runs on Sunday to guide North Ballarat 162 with 70 overs still available - enough time for the match to go either way, although ultimately intermittent showers ensured that many overs would not be delivered as covers were repeatedly put on and taken off.
An opening stand of 53 for East Ballarat by Lewis Hodgins, 24, and Haseloff was then pivotal in ending the Roosters' last hopes.
North Ballarat needed wickets, but a missed run out and then having spearhead Ash McCafferty barred after bowling a second above waste full toss in the innings in his eighth over were setbacks it never recovered from.
Brad Whittaker put the game quickly to rest at the end with 45 runs (six fours, two sixes) in even time.
EAST BALLARAT v NORTH BALLARAT
At Eastern Oval
North Ballarat
1st Innings
L LORENZEN c Eyers b Hayes 24
J TISSERA c Dixon b Hayes 11
M ZAKYNTHINOS b Dixon 4
C MILES c Eyers b Hayes 5
M NOLAN c Brown b Dixon 3
D PRICE c Eyers b Brown 17
J CROSBIE b Hayes 7
S JACKSON c Ganley b Nichols 1
A EDDY lbw b Dixon 6
M NICHOLSON c Haseloff b Jerram 14
A MCCAFFERTY not out 34
Sundries 5
Total 131
Fall: 15, 23, 36, 47, 47, 62, 73, 75, 79, 131.
Bowling: O Hayes 21-12-32-4, J Brown 9-4-28-1, T Dixon 17-7-44-3, H Ganley 8-3-9-0, C Jerram 4.3-1-4-1, J Nichols 7-4-9-1.
Overs: 66.3.
East Ballarat
1st Innings
L HODGINS lbw b McCafferty 2
C HASELOFF c Nolan b McCafferty 0
C JERRAM c Price b Eddy 0
J BLANDFORD c Crosbie b Miles 60
H GANLEY c Nolan b Eddy 14
B WHITTAKER c Nolan b Crosbie 18
T DIXON c Nolan b Crosbie 2
J EYERS lbw b Eddy 0
J BROWN c Miles b Crosbie 37
J NICHOLS c Nolan b McCafferty 0
O HAYES not out 2
Sundries 5
Total 140
Fall: 1, 2, 2, 24, 73, 75, 78, 118, 132, 140.
Bowling: A McCafferty 16-2-56-3, A Eddy 21-9-51-3, C Miles 4-1-10-1, J Crosbie 8.3-3-15-3, L Lorenzen 1-0-5-0.
Overs: 50.3.
North Ballarat
2nd Innings
L LORENZEN c Eyers b Hayes 7
J TISSERA c Eyers b Hayes 6
M ZAKYNTHINOS c Haseloff b Dixon 37
C MILES c Eyers b Hayes 43
M NOLAN b Dixon 1
D PRICE not out 39
J CROSBIE c Blandford b Brown 11
S JACKSON c Hodgins b Dixon 4
A EDDY lbw b Jerram 4
A MCCAFFERTY b Jerram 0
M NICHOLSON b Dixon 2
Sundries 8
Total 162
Fall: 13, 14, 85, 97, 97, 124, 129, 141, 141, 162.
Bowling: O Hayes 29-11-61-3, J Nichols 3-1-5-0, T Dixon 26.2-13-26-4, H Ganley 9-6-10-0, J Brown 12-3-37-1, C Jerram 5-2-15-2.
Overs: 84.2.
East Ballarat
2nd Innings
L HODGINS c Nicholson b McCafferty 24
C HASELOFF c Lorenzen b Zakynthinos 33
H GANLEY c Crosbie b Miles 26
J BLANDFORD not out 12
B WHITTAKER not out 45
Sundries 10
Three wickets for 150
Fall: 54, 72, 100.
Bowling: A McCafferty 7.3-3-10-1, A Eddy 2-1-20-0, J Crosbie 3-0-23-0, M Zakynthinos 2-0-11-1, S Jackson 4-0-18-0, C Miles 8.3-2-16-1, L Lorenzen 6-1-15-0, M Nicholson 3-1-10-0, D Price 2-0-20-0.
East Ballarat won on first innings.
Umpires: Allan Lepair, Peter Mackay.