James takes eight

By Iain Harley
LEIGH James took eight wickets as The Basin toppled Upwey to move to 10th spot in round 10 of the FTGDCA.
A fighting century by Dain Howe saw Upwey post 190 in reply to the Huntsmen’s 9/231.
James had the Tigers in trouble from the start taking early wickets. Travis Richardson was the only other batsman to put in a solid performance. Whilst the Basin are 5 points off the Bottom, a win next week will ensure they avoid relegation.
The Johnson Park Sharks took the points over Ferntree Gully as they managed to pass the Blues score 9 wickets down with Adrian Romei making 58. The return to form of Mark Butters and Matt Black will be pleasing leading into finals for the Blues with eight wickets between them. The result enabled both teams to retain their positions in the top two.
In the clash between Eildon Park and Belgrave, which saw 15 wickets fall last week, only 1 wicket fell on Saturday as the Magpies sealed their place in the four.
Scott Vozzo (71 not out) and Chris Dalkin (42) saw Belgrave home in the 65th over. Mick Sinclair was the best bowler for The Panthers with 4 wickets. Eildon Park controls their own finals fate in their game against Knoxfield.
St Johns Tecoma won over Knoxfield with Matt Johnson (94) and Trent Pitts (99n.o.) helping the Saints to first innings points.
In an effort to force an outright, Pitts declared their inning closed at tea missing a personal milestone. In their second dig the Knights made 2/132 with Trent Scholfield (51n.o.) admitting to being the worst driver in the world after failing to drive a boundary at the small Talaskia Reserve. The Saints will need a win over the Basin and Eildon Park to stumble to make the four.
Upper Ferntree Gully easily accounted for a disappointing Lysterfield with Jay Collee and Al Lord sharing the bowling honours for the Kings. Mountain Gate fell short in their pursuit of Rowville’s 304.
The Gators had lots of contributors with Athula Samaraseekera (64) the best. Rick Ramsdale was the best of the bowlers for the Hawks.
With 5 points separating the bottom three teams the spectre of relegation may be enough to spur them on to win over more fancied opponents.