By LIAM TWOMEY
FOOTSCRAY Edgewater suffered its first loss of the Victorian Premier Cricket season, going down to Richmond by 18 runs on Saturday.
In perfect conditions, Footscray won the toss and sent Richmond into bat with Andrew Delmont making the most of his time in the middle.
Delmont batted through the majority of the innings on his way to 61 as the scoreboard kept ticking over.
He was well supported by Matthew King who made 30 while five other Tigers’ batsmen made it to double figures.
At the end of 50 overs, Richmond posted 9/170 to be in the box seat.
For Footscray, Jake Haberfield continued his impressive start to the season with another three wickets.
Since his debut for the Bulldogs in round one, Haberfield has taken 10 wickets at an average of 12.70.
Fellow opening bowler Hamish Winter-Irving also chipped in with two scalps.
In reply, it was a new opening partnership for Footscray as the club began life without gun batsman Wes Robinson who has returned to his home state of Western Australia.
The combination of Dean Russ and Nathan Beever struggled in their first outing at the crease together, adding just two before the latter was dismissed.
From 2/14, Footscray was able to fight back though with the middle order of Travis Dean, Dylan Kight and Anthony Barton seeing the score through to 3/106.
However, before they were able to mount their charge towards the finish line, the wickets came.
Footscray lost 4/23 and then 3/6 to be dismissed for 152 after 45 overs.
Kight finished as the club’s leading run scorer with 46.
For Richmond, Allan Wise was the pick of the bowlers with 2/21.
The action didn’t stop there for the Bulldogs who suited up again on Sunday to take on Casey South-Melbourne.
It was a better result this time, with Footscray running out comfortable 70-run winners.
After four games, the Bulldogs sit in third spot on the ladder with a 3-1 win/loss record.
They will take on Essendon in a one-day game this week.
