Ross Kendall
A tough season got a whole lot better for the Mullum-Bruns XI in the Coastal League after they picked up a rare win in round 12 on the back of an unbeaten century from Robby Goodacre.
The captain’s 117 not out was the opener’s second century he has ever scored, and really set Mullum-Bruns up for a win in the bottom of the table clash with the Ballina Bears.
Mullum-Bruns won the toss and elected to bat on their home ground Thompson Oval.
‘For the first few overs the ball was moving around a bit, but after that it evened out,’ Robby said. ‘From there everything just clicked’.
Robby’s innings dominated the day’s play and was supported by fellow opener Adam Gadowski (13 runs) and Scott Porter (18).
The next six wickets fell for just 12 runs as the rest of the batsmen chased quick runs with time running out.
Payden Samuelson was the pick of the Bears’ bowlers with 3/32 off seven overs. Zac Meldrum also did well collecting 2/21 off five overs.
With 170 runs to defend, Robby reckoned the team were odds on to collect a win.
‘A lot of teams struggle with the large size of our oval and I was confident we had the bowling attack,’ he said.
The Bears gave it a pretty good shot and only fell short by 15 runs reaching 155. At 3/61 they still had a shot but a string of wickets left them with all the work to do at 8/119.
‘They put together a few good partnerships in the middle of their innings, but once we got through those the wickets started to fall, confident we would roll through the tail, and we did,’ Robby said.
Scott Porter had a good day with the ball, taking 4/16 off eight overs.
Strong Ballina batsmen made good starts – Michael Lockery (20), Jason Holmes (22), Adam Hart (19), Grant Noble (25), Samual Norris (17) and Michael Turnbull (19) – but none was able to provide a big score to secure the chase.
‘It was our first win in a while so it was good to see boys with smiles back on their faces,’ he said.
Despite their loss, Ballina remain in ninth spot on that league table with their three wins, while Mullum-Bruns are still last on the ladder with just two wins to their name for the season. The team does have a game hand, however.
Last Saturday’s round of the Coastal League was washed out.
Terranora are on the top of the ladder with ten wins.
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