In round one, Youth Club played Swifts Great Western which saw Youth Club win comfortably, making 136 to SGW's 63. St Andrew's played Pomonal in which St Andrew's made 7/87, just getting over Pomonal's 80 runs.

In round two, we had Youth Club make 132 to Halls Gap's 72. Chalambar took on Pomonal and came out on top in another close game, 3/95 to 9/91.

Round 3 saw SGW win comfortably with 9/106 to Halls Gap's 71. St Andrew's with 2/88 beat Chalambar 73.

That left Youth Club to battle it out with St Andrew's for the Henry Gunstone cup on Sunday. Youth Club batted first and made another 130 total.

St Andrew's battled hard to chase down the runs but after a miserly opening spell by Cam Kimber and Clinton Slorach, St Andrew's hadn't got to double figures by the time Cam had finished his four overs and Clinton three overs.

This made the task for St Andrew's near on impossible and they finished well short of Youth Club's total.

Youth Club were presented with the Henry Gunstone Cup and have elected to attend the Sungold Cup in Warnambool whilst St Andrew's will head to Cricket Willow near Daylesford.

In A grade, round seven kicks off the last round before the Christmas break.

This is a two-day game. SGW takes on Hall's Gap at Central Park. Sam Cocks has been in top form with the bat and one would expect this to continue against a win-less Halls Gap, who despite the odds against them, keep fronting up each week and giving it their best shot. They will be hoping for a sustained effort to avoid an outright defeat against a strong SGW side who bowled out St Andrew's for only 35 last game.

Youth Club takes on Pomonal at North Park. This could be a close game if Pomonal has a full compliment of players to pick from due to harvest and injuries.

The game between St Andrew's and Chalambar is to be known as the Herbie Bourke Memorial Game, with a trophy named in his honor to be presented to the winning team each year. This is a great initiative from both clubs to perpetuate the memory of a great man and player. Chally sit in third place on the ladder, just above St Andrew's who are only in the top four by percentage. St Andrew's were missing a few players last game and if Tom Mills (as well as a couple of others), return they will be able to take this game right up to Chally.

B grade resume after a week's break for the T20.

The in form Buangor Tatyoon outfit take on the red hot SGW side in what is set to be a great game of cricket. B/T weren't quite at full strength in their last game whilst SGW handed Aradale their first loss for the season last game.

Navarre play Rhymney Moyston at Navarre. With harvest getting under way, it could see an under-manned Navarre struggle leading into the Christmas break. With Trevor Quick out injured and Jaxon Edwards on a cricket trip to New Zealand it will even the game up a bit.

Halls Gap take on Wickliffe Lake Bolac at the Gap and again, depending on the availability of players due to harvest, it may give Halls Gap a chance to put some more points on the board. With some short boundaries at the Gap, it won't take much for a player or two to get on top of the bowling attack and score some quick runs.

In the last game, Pomonal takes on Aradale, who were handed their first defeat for the season. I would expect they will come out hard to rectify that loss. Aradale has some experienced players that know what it takes to bowl tight and make runs.

In junior cricket, Harvey Norman Ararat has agreed to a two-year deal to supply shirts for the Kirton Shield games and both under 13 and under 15 country week teams. It will help the kids look more professional when taking on the bigger representative teams who all have major sponsors.

Our under 16s started a two-day game last week, which will be completed this Friday night. Tatyoon took on Aradale on the turf at Tatyoon. Batting first, Tatyoon made 1/135. Extras top scored with 34 while Lachie Dalkin finished not out on 30, while all batsmen got a hit during the innings. In the other game, Halls Gap made 9/160 in which future champion Max McMahon made 51 not out, extras 35, J McMurtrie got 29 and Noah Stirling made 21. No bowling figures were available at the time of writing.

In the under 13s, the grudge match between the two Buangor sides was won by B2 by just nine runs. St Andrew's got over the top of Pomonal by only 10 runs. Halls Gap defeated Tatyoon by 32 runs and SGW defeated W/LB by 22 runs.

My selections for this round are: A grade: SGW, YCCC and Chalambar. B grade: SGW, R/Moyston, Halls Gap and Aradale.