by Samuel Laffy
Garfield-Tynong (140) def. Western Park (9/139)
For much of Western Park's run chase in the division two one-day final it seemed as though the Warriors were comfortably in command, sitting at 1/70 in the 20th over in pursuit of 140.
Dale Fawcett (a 34-ball 33) had provided his side with the ideal start, punishing Brayden Ridler for over-pitching with the new ball, and scything a number of drives to the fence.
He even launched Krishan Rangajith down the ground – something not many have done this summer – and with Henry Allsop (24) and Jack Barnes (32) looking composed the Titans' unbeaten streak looked in danger.
Allsop's dismissal however – caught short thanks to a direct hit from mid-off from Sean Somers – saw Tyler McMillan come and go without scoring (skying an attempted pull off Grant Pearson, who snared 2/23) and at 4/95 the pressure was suddenly back on the Warriors.
Alex Gavin and Angus Geals each laced a couple of boundaries to ease tensions slightly, but with Garfield-Tynong suddenly renewed each run became that little bit harder to sneak.
Matt Jones and James Allen were both run out as ill-advised singles and twos were attempted, with Ridler (who snared the man of the match medal) and Kasun Ranasinghe's reintroduction into the attack seeing scoring drop significantly as they used clever changes of pace in the death overs.
The glimmer of hope for Western Park was that a miscalculation in overs saw Sean Somers handed the ball for his first – and the last over – of the innings. With 11 required onlookers thought perhaps his lack of bowling might see him drop short or wide.
Nonetheless, Somers calmly prevented Matt Garner from successfully launching him until it was too late (with a final ball six seeing Western Park fall just one run short), much to Garfield-Tynong's delight.
Earlier in the day, Ranasinghe (29) and Ridler (23) made valuable contributions to help the Titans reach 140 – although they too found scoring tough at times.
Oscar Sheehan (3/32), Tyler McMillan (2/14), and Matt Garner (who announced that he 'was back' with 2/22) all impressed with ball in hand, but despite their efforts were found wanting at game's end.