Victoria takes Shield

Ending on Saturday, the Victorians claimed the one title, finishing runners-up in both the Open Men and Ladies division along with a third and fifth placing in the Under-20 Ladies and Men’s respectively.

Having won 13 out of the last 14 years, Queensland entered the Lord’s Taverners Shield Grand Final, the division for cricketers with an intellectual disability, as favourites.

Batting first, Queensland set a target of 75 with the Victorians compiling some healthy partnerships to reach a total of 90 and claim the Shield.

“We lost our first game and then didn’t lose since,” Victorian Lord’s Taverners coach Rick Trezise said.

“The boys did the hard work playing in the mainstream Super League competition on Friday nights and it’s paid off.”

In the Open Men’s division, Queensland posted a challenging total of 130, losing just five wickets.

After losing two wickets in the first eight overs, Victoria found the chase difficult with Clive Rose top scoring on 20.

Throwing everything at the visitors, Victoria fell 35 runs short of the total, giving Queensland its third consecutive title.

The Open Women’s Final told a similar story with Queensland posting another strong score of 140.

The Victorians felt the pressure from the start, opening their campaign with negative five and completing their innings on 96.

While the Victorian Under-20 Ladies team finished with four wins and five losses and the Men’s team accumulated two wins and eight losses.

From the event, eight Victorians were selected in the Australian team to compete at October’s World Cup in New Zealand with Travis Baker, Justin Perkins, Brad Jones, Lance MacDougall from the Open Men, Laura Shaw, Nicole Martin, Briony Polkinghorne from the Open Ladies and Ben Cooper from the Under-20 Men’s.

All tournament results can be found on the Indoor Cricket Championships website.

Image sourced from PowerShots Photography