THE Peel Cricket Association defeated the Upper Great Southern Cricket Association to win the A-grade Country Week title on Saturday.
The Peel side, comprised of players from each of the 10 association teams, qualified for the final after winning four of their five round matches to finish top of their pool.
Peel’s grand final opponent had gone through the competition undefeated but that didn’t faze the Peel team.
Peel won the toss and elected to bat first, a decision that proved to be a good one after three of the opening five batsmen posted more than 70 runs each.
Singleton-Irwinians’ Bryce Evans led the way with 99 while Singleton-Irwinians' Andrew Peckover and Waroona’s Ben Wright made 78 and 71 respectively.
The side were eventually dismissed for 327 in the 59th over of the 60-over competition.
In response the Peel bowlers started strongly dismissing with Upper Great Southern left floundering at 3/35.
Number four Arron Quartermaine was up for the challenge with a well-made 91 however batters continued to fall around him as his side were dismissed for 249.
Matthew Gordon was the pick of the Peel bowlers with 3/48 from his 14.4 overs.
The last time Peel had won the title was in 2013 with six players from the current squad also part of the victory.
Peel kicked off its Country Week campaign with a win against Eastern Goldfields 104 to 147.
Mitchell Smith was outstanding with the ball for Peel with 7/18 from 9.3 overs while Jayden Derosa led the way with the bat with 35.
The win was followed by a huge victory against Harvey Leschenault.
After bowling Harvey Leschenault out for 170 Peel went on to post 6/319 with Derosa again leading from the front with 122; Peckover chipped in with 57 while Wright posted 52.
Gordon was the pick of the Peel bowlers with 5/31 from 12.4 overs.
Peel next opponent was the WA Indigenous XI which peel accounted for comfortable.
After bowling the Indigenous XI out for 130 Peel declared at 2/205 with Derosa top scoring with 83 with Wright not out on 64.
Daniel Abel collected 3/16 while Aaron Burrage picked up 3/26 to be Peel’s best bowlers.
Peel’s batting depth was stretched in their fourth round match against North Midlands after the openers fell cheaply.
Josh Petersen fought hard at number three to post 55 from 95 balls while bowler Mitchell Smith top scored with 67 to help his side to 237.
In reply the Peel bowlers got the job done easily bowling North Midlands out for 91.
Due to the two big wins Peel almost had top spot and a place in the grand final assured heading into their final game against Bunbury and Districts needing to just not get beaten badly.
Bunbury batted first and were able to reach 6/225 from their 60 overs.
In reply Burrage top scored with 50 but it was not enough as his side were all out for 212 with eight balls remaining.
However the result did not matter with Peel going on to win the grand final.
Peel’s B-grade team fell agonisingly short against West Pilbra in the final 8/185 to 9/186.
However Peel also claimed the C-grade title against Busselton Margaret River easily reaching the opposition’s total of 139.
