Westbury Shamrocks look past the Greater Northern Cup

Chathura Athukorala boosted the Shamrocks score, but not enough to secure their third consecutive Cup. Photo by Andrew Shepherd

David Claridge

THE WESTBURY Shamrocks were literally hitting sixes in January, notching up a T20 Grand Final win by 10 wickets against Launceston and, brimming with confidence, booking a ticket to their third consecutive Greater Northern Cup. In the rematch, with the winner to take the cup, a strong performance by the Launceston Lions unfortunately brought the run to an abrupt halt, defeating them 2/98 to 97 all out.

Club Captain Dan Murfet, described the match as ‘an absolute shocker.’

‘Probably one of worst performances we have put out all season. Unfortunately it happened when we were in a Greater Northern Cup final.’

‘I think we will be able to learn a lot from it and we know we will come up against them again if we want to play finals later in the year.’

‘Hopefully we only get better from here, there is still plenty of cricket to play this season.’

The Shamrocks’ spearhead, Chathura Athukorala, scored 50 off 68 balls, but it wasn’t enough, with the Lions passing them in less than 17 overs.

Westbury have still added to their trophy cabinet, winning the T20 grand final ten days earlier.

Jesse Digney and Johnno Chapman stood up with the bat and were the high scorers for the team with 38 and 35 runs, Jesse hitting four 6s.

Westbury’s T20 win ended a 12 game winning streak for Launceston.