STRONG batting wasn’t really the order of the day at Ray Davies Oval in the VTCA North Division on Saturday.
It was there where Laverton stumbled to 178 against Keilor Park in 66 overs.
Brent Sheean and Matthew O’Brien both led the way for the visitors throughout the day, scoring 51 and 49 respectively.
But other than those contributions Laverton struggled, with every other hitter failing to reach anything higher than 20.
Dilshan Udage Kankanamage was the main enforcer for Keilor Park, claiming three Laverton wickets for the innings.
Keilor Park was then given 14 overs to bat through at the end of the day’s play and managed to get 14 runs on the board.
However the home team will resume its pursuit of 179 with only nine wickets in hand this weekend, after James Baker scored a breakthrough late on Saturday to finish with figures of 1/5 and three maidens from seven overs.
A COMBINED 14 wickets were claimed for just 122 runs between Sunshine United and Newport-Digman in the VTCA West B1 competition on Saturday.
Sunshine United was sent in to bat first on its home deck at Selwyn Park, which after 57.3 overs looked to be a very wise decision by Newport-Digman captain Matthew Shiell.
The Sunshine United top order capitulated to lose three wickets for just 10 runs before they were able to steady the ship, albeit temporarily.
Newport-Digman’s Matthew Mason sent shutters through the Sunshine United order on his way to a very tidy 5/17 and five maidens from 14 and a half overs, helping to restrict the host to an all-out 80 halfway through the 58th over.
Despite their established advantage with the ball, Newport-Digman crumbled even harder than Sunshine United did with the bat earlier in the day, succumbing to a measly total of 4/22.
Another 59 runs are required for victory this weekend.
THE eyes of the Western Suburbs were locked on TAC Cup side the Western Jets and VFL sides Werribee and Williamstown ahead of last month’s national and rookie AFL drafts.
While the three sides combined to promote four players into the game’s elite competition, it was another Western Suburbs product that snuck under the radar.
Hoppers Crossing’s Michael Luxford was also drafted by Geelong as a Category B Rookie.
Luxford has been well known in the West as one of the hottest young basketball talents in Australia.
After making his first Victorian basketball team at age 11, the teenager has been a regular fixture in all state representative sides since.
In 2012 he was also selected in Australia’s under-17 team which competed in the FIBA under-17 World Championship.
With the help of Luxford, the team went on to claim a silver medal.
After a successful 2013 which saw him named the Most Valuable Player in the under-23 Big V League while playing for Werribee, Luxford has elected to try his chances at AFL rather than pursue a career on the court.
“It was an enormous decision for Michael and his family to go down a different path and choose footy,” Cats recruiting manager Stephen Wells said.
“Michael is a very talented sportsman, a high achiever in basketball and school and after plenty of trials with him we can see genuine potential.”
Luxford will fulfil his prior basketball commitments which include representing his secondary school, Caulfield Grammar, at next week’s national schools basketball competition and representing Victoria in the under-20 team next February at the National State Championship in Perth.
“The club has been very lenient and fantastic in allowing me to go back and fulfil my prior basketball commitments, I’m very grateful,” Luxford said.
