After being the only team to reach 200 runs last round, Mount Clear now has a big chance to confirm its finals credential across the next two weekends, up against the all-conquering Golden Point in the match of the round in BCA First XI cricket.
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Strong results in recent weeks against Naps-Sebas and Wendouree has seen the Mounties back inside the top four, but they only hold onto fourth spot by run rate from Darley, with Wendouree just half-a-game back.
The strength of the Mount Clear game is its batting. Skipper Tom Le Lievre is in fine form, but it's opener Matt Ward that has added that extra piece of steel to the top order.
Ward has scores of 105, 76no and last week's 38 came off 65 balls, taking the shine off the new ball, allowing his teammates to flow with runs late in the innings.
Ajay Mada and Ashley George then did the work with the ball, amazingly ripping through the Naps-Sebas lower order, at one stage seeing them lose 4-0 as 5-125 turned into 9-125 in a blink of an eye.
This week's opponent Golden Point was far from its best last round but still managed to get the points. The batting was saved by Simon Ogilvie and it's fair to say the all-rounder had a big say in the early stages of the Wendouree chase with two quick wickets, on his way to four for the innings.
Golden Point has been the clear frontrunner all season, but this is Mount Clear's chance to show it means business this year.
Another team that's made some huge strides this season is Ballarat-Redan and it hits the road to face Naps-Sebas at Napoleons.
The Two Swords bowlers were a class above Darley's batters last round, if they produce that sort of performance against the Griffins, they could be on the way to a big win.
Naps-Sebas is not playing with the same sort of confidence it has shown in recent seasons, it needs to get moving fast if it is to figure in finals calculations this season.
The late collapse against Mount Clear was alarming. It will be up to the top-order to bunker down against a fired-up Two Swords bowling attack early if they are to be a chance.
The first Bacchus Marsh derby has been a long-time coming, with Darley set to host Bacchus Marsh in a history-making encounter.
It's been many years since these two rivals have clashed, previously in the Gisborne Cricket Association and this game will be worth remembering.
It looms as a pretty even contest too, Darley is far from its peak form, failing to crack 100 last week.
Bacchus Marsh is learning to bat long and it's tail did the job late against Brown Hill. this should be close.
Brown Hill has been super unlucky all season with last week's one-wicket loss to Bacchus Marsh symbolic of a nearly year, but if their luck changes this weekend, they will be well pleased because they face a side in East Ballarat which is very much in form.
The Hawks picked up a rare outright last weekend and would be confident of showing that form against this week.
Brown Hill can bat long if they get in, but they will need to be at their best to be competitive here.
In the final game, the result isn't so much the key for Buninyong but whether their batters can stick to the task, having only last 24 overs last week.
Wendouree will be keen to bounce back and needs a big result here for its confidence. You know the Red Caps will be in every game, it's time for the Bunnies to show they can compete.
FIRST XI FIXTURE and TEAMS
Darley v Bacchus Marsh @ Darley Park
DARLEY - Bradley Barnes, Dilan Chandima, Liam Cornford, Madushanka Ekanayaka, Lachlan Herring, Rockey Hoey, Drew Locke, Benjamin Longhurst (c), Chamika Sattambi, Brodie Ward, Hasitha Wickramasinghe
BACCHUS MARSH - Taeje Baker, Connor Ascough, Ryan Brown, Angus Jones, James Lidgett, Alex Porter, Jack Powell, Nick Strangio, Jared Taylor, Armi Wakefield, Thomas Wardell (c)
Naps-Sebas v Ballarat-Redan @ Napoleons
NAPS-SEBAS - Tom Appleton, Luke Corden, Sajith Dissanayaka, Nathan Doonan, Zac Healy, Corey Hucker, Zac Hunter, Harry Peirson, Sam Peters, Dylan Price, Daniel Scott (c)
BALLARAT-REDAN - David Carton, Matthew Aikman, Chris Egan (c), Riley Fisher, Jayden Hayes, Zac Jenkins, Joshua Mackley, Max Riding, Connor Ronan, Randhir Sandhu, Brendan Thomson
Mount Clear v Golden Point @ Mount Clear
MOUNT CLEAR - Ashley George, Kylan Jans, Thomas Le Lievre (c),Ajay Mada, Hugh McGregor, Joel Moriarty, Lachlan Payne, Jacob Smith, Grant Trevenen, Matt Ward
GOLDEN POINT - Darcy Aitken, Lachlan Anderson, Manjula De Zoysa, Andrew Falkner, Mohomed Feshal, Simon Ogilvie, Joshua Pegg (c), Lukas Pegg, Andrew Warrick, Daniel White, Joshua White
East Ballarat v Brown Hill @ Russell Square
EAST BALLARAT - Finlay Baker, Joshua Brown, Samuel Cocks, Adam Eddy, Jacob Eyers (c), Harry Ganley, William Hodgins, Chris Jerram, Abhilasha Rodrigo, Josh Smith, Tom Walton
BROWN HILL - Tom Bourke-Finn (c), Nick Cochrane, Shashi Fernando, Lahriu Gunasinhage, Fraser Hunt, Jason Knowles, Ryan Knowles, Akila Lakshan, Martin Porter, Nathan Porter, Viraj Pushpakumara
Wendouree v Buninyong @ CE Brown Reserve
WENDOUREE - Heath Pyke (c), Lucas Argall, Tom Batters, Liam Brady, Charlie Mahncke, Monty Maloney, Ash McCafferty, Sam Peeters, Cole Roscholler, Stephen Segrave, Liam Wood
BUNINYONG - Wasim Ali, Harrison Bond (c), Brad Byrnes, Rory Fisher, Campbell Palmer, Hudson Palmer, Prabath Ranaweera Koralalage, Bailey Ryan, Rupinder Singh, Mitchell Tierney, Naditha Tissera
