GCA - Following Saturday's play, Buangor are in a great position to play in their first A grade final series in the Grampians Cricket Association, with six points in the bag and with the possibility of another four this Saturday, they could leapfrog over Aradale and St Andrews into fourth position and, with a game against Pomonal to come, have a very good chance of retaining that fourth spot.
Aradale and St Andrews are in impossible positions going into day two, and with matches against Tatyoon and Swifts/Great Western in the next rounds it's hard to see them gaining enough points to displace Buangor.
Top order batting collapses by Aradale, St Andrews and Pomonal continue to hinder any chances of winning scores.
Aradale will be relieved to hear that centurion Jacob Seeary won't be there to continue his onslaught, as he heads to Poland on an affair of the heart.
He will be missing until the last Saturday of the season - it will be a bit of a shock leaving Poland at minus four to return to 40 degree heat.
In the B grade, Elmhurst have set top team Navarre a task, and second placed team Halls Gap have a bit of work to do before gaining any points against Aradale.
Swifts/Great Western will be looking to gain maximum points to bridge the gap on the top two, and in the remaining match, while the result is undecided, Willaura would be strongly favoured to score the 37 runs required.
The only surprise in the C grade was Chalambar's defeat by Pomonal.
The semi-finals of the one-day competition are being staged on Sunday with the draw being in A grade Swifts/Great Western versus Buangor at Central Park and Tatyoon v Youth Club at Tatyoon.
In B grade, Navarre play Elmhurst at Navarre (Elmhurst might as well stop the night at Navarre), and Swifts/Great Western v Halls Gap at Great Western, although there seems to be some doubt as to whether Swifts/Great Western can field two sides on a Sunday. The finals will be played a fortnight later.
Talking to Tatyoon scorer Ray Whittaker and he tells me they received a "flogging" at the SunGold Twenty20 last Sunday.
He tells me that they took a wicket with the third ball of the match, but that was it, the other opening batsman made an unconquered hundred and number three a half century, leaving Tatyoon to get nearly 200 to win which, as he said, "we never came close".
The Central Highlands region boys teams performed well early in last week's pathways competitions but fell short at the 'pointy end' of the competition.
The Dowling Shield team, with GCA represented by Jacob Bates won the first three games, but lost the qualifying quarter final and the semi final.
In a strong batting team Jacob only had one hit for seven runs, but went well in his capacity as wicketkeeper taking catches and stumpings during the week.
In the under 14 section, the Highlanders with Jarrod Illig the GCA rep lost the first game, but then won the next three to reach the major semis but were defeated by the South East Eagles, a Melbourne based region, thus denying the a place in the final.
Jarrod had a good week, getting wickets in most games, although his batting opportunities were limited.
The Highlander girls are playing this week and the under 16 team is undefeated with Tiffany Boatman having a great carnival (6/22 being her best bowling performance and 16 her highest score).
The under 14 girls started the week with two wins but then had two losses which will leave them out of final contention.
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