Titanic effort pays off in first season

ONE of the Geelong region’s newest cricket clubs has won a premiership in its first season.

The Armstrong Creek Cricket and Sporting Club took on the Jan Juc Sharks in the BPCA’s C Grade grand final last month and won.

The club, known as the Titans, range in age from teenagers through to men in their late 40s, many of whom have returned to the game after a five to 10-year ‘hiatus’ – there are also two father-and-son pairs playing for the team.

In the game, played at Winchelsea’s Eastern Reserve, Jan Juc won the toss on March 24 and elected to bat, making 117 off 36.3 overs. Denis Bilston opened and scored 51, and Justin Fulton was the pick of the Titans’ bowlers with 5/23 off 10 overs – a feat for which he was later named best player of the match.

The next day, the Titans reached the target for the loss of six wickets. Mat Parnell top scored with 39 and was not out at the end, and Jan Juc’s David Norman took four wickets.

There was much jubilation amongst the Armstrong Creek players, club personnel and family members, and the Sharks graciously invited the Titans back to their clubrooms in Jan Juc as the Titans do not yet have a facility of their own.