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It won't erase the pain of last season's grand final defeat, but North Ballarat managed some revenge on East Ballarat on Saturday.
The Roosters secured an important six points thanks largely to an eighth-wicket partnership between skipper Leigh Lorenzen and Ash McCafferty that got the team over the line.
Set 167 for victory, the Roosters were in awful trouble early in the run chase. They lost three wickets in the opening couple of overs and were 3-6 when Lorenzen strode to the crease at number five.
He set about resurrecting the innings, but continued to lose partners until the score slipped to 7-88.
McCafferty then joined Lorenzen and the pair put together 71 to close in on victory.
Lorenzen was dismissed for 84 just short of the final target, which left McCafferty (34 not out) and Mitchell Nicholson (two not out) to find the winning runs in the 42nd over.
Lorenzen said it was an important success for his side and hoped it would start the momentum rolling towards a charge at the top four.
"It was about time we got another win on the board," he said.
"It took a bit longer than what we hoped but hope we can sort of start our season from here."
Lorenzen turned around his average season with the bat on Saturday, with the effort clearly his best of the campaign so far.
"It was good to get some runs personally but Ash was really critical at the end there getting 30 odd not out to get us over the line," he told The Courier.
Earlier in the day at the Northern Oval, McCafferty and Jackson Hayes took three wickets each to skittle East Ballarat for just 166 inside 41 overs.
Jacob Eyers continued his great season with 73, but was the only real Hawks batsman to get on top of the bowlers. Tristan Dixon was next best with a handy 26 through the middle order.
Victory in Saturday's one-day clash has North Ballarat eighth on the Ballarat Cricket Association first grade ladder, nine points adrift of the top four.
The defeat has seen the reigning premiers maintain their place in second, but the gap to top side Darley is now nine points.
Next weekend is the last round before the break over Christmas and it will be the second of the Twenty20 fixtures for 2019-20.
North Ballarat will take on Golden Point while East Ballarat is scheduled to tackle Brown Hill.
Competition will then break until round 10 on January 11.
Brown Hill pulled off one of the big shocks in round eight with a one-wicket victory over Mt Clear.
Missing the experienced Ryan Knowles, the Bulls restricted the Mounties to 7-160 from their 50 overs and then chased down the total in the final over of the afternoon.
Mt Clear recovered from 6-40 at one stage in their innings to eventually reach a competitive score on its home ground.
Lower order batsmen Ash George (46) and Darren Fletcher (51 not out) saved the Mounties from disaster and gave the side something to bowl at later in the afternoon.
In reply, Matt Sandford played basically a lone hand at the top of the order for the Bulls.
His innings of 73 proved vital for the visitors, which just did enough to scramble to victory.
Sandford was the second last batsman out for the Bulls, which were carried over the line by Kyle Hayes (20 not out) and captain Tom Bourke-Finn (five not out).
Elsewhere on Saturday, Golden Point secured an impressive win over Wendouree at CE Brown Reserve.
The Red Caps made 8-156 before the Pointies chased it down with two wickets and more than an over in hand.
Over at Alfredton, Darley made light work of Ballarat-Redan.
The Lions made 6-230 and then rolled the Two Swords for just 124 in reply.
Harry Killoran top-scored with 79, while Ben Longhurst got three wickets.
The other game of the round saw Buninyong beat Napoleons-Sebastopol by just three runs.