Cats fail to chase down Heat

GEELONG’S Premier Men have gone down to Frankston Peninsula by 105 runs despite a century from a young gun on day two at Jubilee Park at the weekend.

The loss all but rules out a finals berth for the Cats, making it the second consecutive year they have failed to move past the home and away season.

After bowling the Heat out for 340 thanks to six wickets from Zane Attard, Geelong were left with a tough task in ideal cricket conditions on Saturday.

A blowout loss looked imminent early as the home side forced early wickets to see the Cats at a meagre 4/64, with three of their first four batsmen all out for under 10 runs.

The exception was Liam Blackford, who entered at third and steadied his group to avoid disaster.

Blackford made an admirable 166 from 158 balls, which turned out to be more than half of Geelong’s total score as they were bowled all out for just 235 in the 74th over.

Besides Blackford’s ton, no other batsman scored more than 28 runs.

The loss puts the Cats down to 13th on the ladder with a 6-9 record. They will face the Greenvale Kangaroos in their last clash of the season at home across the next two weekends.

The Seconds went down by 25 runs in a valiant effort that nearly saw them chase down Frankston Peninsula’s 360-run total and sit fifth in their competition with one round to play.

Geelong’s Thirds overcame the Heat by 37 runs and sit fourth on the ladder, while the Fourths lost to move down to 14th.