Ashfield has made the most of its opportunity to represent the Gisborne and District Cricket Association at a higher level.
Previously only the winner of the GDCA’s premier division T20 competition progressed to the Central Highlands Region Willow T20 Cup finals, but this year the winner of the association’s district division also qualified.
That’s where Ashfield came in, qualifying for the finals by beating Lancefield to win their way into the next stage.
And by beating Avoca on Sunday, they progressed to the grand final of the division 2 competition, where they will meet whichever team progresses from the Grenville league.
Ashfield captain-coach Jason King said the club was excited to have made it through to this stage.
“We’ve always been keen to go through to this competition, but we’ve never had the chance to play a side from another competition,” he said.
“We weren’t expecting much with six or seven players unavailable and we were still making changes to the team on Sunday morning.
“We had a few kids playing and weren’t expecting much in terms of results. It was a bit of an unknown.”
Batting first Ashfield, had a distinct advantage over their opposition before a ball was bowled.
“Avoca had won six straight local grand finals but don’t have a T20 competition,” King said.
“We had the experience over them and it was one thing we did notice.”
Once on the pitch, Ashfield made the most of a small ground to reach 7-197.
King top-scored with 63 and was part of a 105-run opening run partnership with Simon Barry.
“I was very surprised with the start but we had to go hard with a small ground,” King said.
“We were aiming to make our highest T20 score and at one stage I told Simon we may need 250 to get the win.”
Ashfield was then able to restrict Avoca to 169.
The big moment was when King brought on teenager Joel Muir to bowl.
“He normally doesn’t play in our T20 team and is our scorer,” King said.
“His dad’s our wicketkeeper and Joel Is a good fielder and you need that in T20.
“Few of the guys were concerned I was taking a risk bowling him but he ended up getting the wicket of their best batsman.”
The Muirs weren’t the only father-son combination with Simon Lake and son Joshua playing in the game.
Simon Lake announced his retirement from cricket on Saturday night.
“His body can’t hold up,” King said. “It was pretty emotional as he walked off the ground.
“He did joke we might be able to twist his arm to play in the final.”
King said the selection committee would have a challenge ahead of them picking the side for the final, to be held on Australia day.
“We have up to 20 players in our T20 squad now and it will make for an interesting selection,” he said. “It will be a tough one.”
Riddell is representing the GDCA in the division 1 competition.
