Tara Murray
A stunning bowling display from Romsey left Bacchus Marsh rattled and the Redbacks through to the Gisborne and District Cricket Association McIntyre Cup grand final.
After being around the mix in recent seasons, the Redbacks have finally broken through to make the final game of the season.
The last time the Redbacks won a top grade premiership was back in 1982-83, when the grade was still known as A-grade.
Redbacks captain-coach Ben Way said this was massive for the club.
“We’re pretty excited,” he said. “It’s a big result for all the work we’ve done as a club.
“After quite a few years to end up where we are now. We’ve had a couple of cracks at it.
“We’ve talked about it on and off. It’s been 30 years, we’ve been dreaming for quite a while of making the McIntyre Cup grand final.
The Bulls entered the grand final as favourites after handing Sunbury United its first defeat of the season the previous week.
What would happen next would leave everyone stunned.
The Redbacks bowled the Bulls out for just 46 in 29.3 overs.
Jamie Taylor took 3-7 while Sean Day and Jake East took two wickets each.
Way said days like that were rare in cricket.
“It’s one of those things that you can bowl well, but it’s about taking those half chances and doing everything right.
“One of those half chances went down, but we took three others and we bowled well.”
The Redbacks got the runs with ease, finishing 1-52.
Way said they just wanted to bat safely and make sure that they didn’t give them a sniff.
Despite heading into the finals in fourth spot, Way said they knew they could match it with the top three sides.
“We have seen ourselves as one of the top sides, especially the last couple of years.
“We had a bad run before Christmas where we didn’t bat well and we lost three matches.
“After Christmas we lost one game against Bacchus Marsh which we should have won.”
The Redbacks will face Gisborne in the grand final, after the Dragons beat Sunbury United.
Way said the key would be early wickets, to stop the Dragons strong top order.
It will be a big weekend for Romsey, with their second side through to Johnstone Shield.
“We all took the bus to Bacchus Marsh to take two wins home was a pretty special day for us.
“They came up a grade this season with Macedon, who rolled us in the grand final last year, hopefully we get one back on them this year.”
