26 — Centralian Advocate, Tuesday, February 26, 2013 PUB: CADV DATE: 26-FEB-2013 PAGE: 26 COLOR: C M Y K SPORT Shane’s Cup runneth over Dale Fletcher IMPARJA Cup founder Shane Franey cannot describe the pride in his heart when it comes to the annual indigenous cricket event in the Red Centre. Franey, who started the tourna- ment with a match between Alice Springs and Tennant Creek in 1994 said every year was better than the previous. He said he and Les Knox had put in place a five-year plan to build up the tournament. ‘‘What can I say, mate? This is just beautiful,’’ Franey said. ‘‘It’s amazing isn’t it? What a great feeling to see all these people enjoying the week. ‘‘The week has got a lot bigger than what I had ever thought we would get to . . . looking back, it’s yes and no, but this is very close to what we had in mind.’’ The Darwin Major Centres’ two-time title winner said there was only one last frontier before the Imparja Cup could be deemed a success. ‘‘We just need one of our brothers in a baggy green,’’ he said. Franey was an integral part of the Darwin victory on Saturday, taking two wickets in two balls as his side defeated the Maranoa Murries by 93 runs in the decider. But, he didn’t know he was on a hat-trick when he took over as wicketkeeper the next over. ‘‘Are you serious? Those guys ripped me off then. I’ll have to talk to the captain about that,’’ he said. ‘‘I had no idea about that. But it was great to win again.’’ Franey was full of praise for his teammates, saying it was a real family affair. ‘‘My son captains the side and there are uncles and nephews in the team and a few younger boys, which is great to see,’’ he said. The win was extra special for Franey, some two decades since after his tournament began. ‘‘It’s a long time ago and it’s great I’m still able to play and contribute,’’ he said. ‘‘We are always going to come back and go for the ‘three-peat’ next year.’’ Franey was all praise for every- one involved with the week-long event, but made special mention of teammate Colin Lamont. ‘‘He (Lamont) was due for a few runs today and he was two short of what would have been a special century,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s those types of stories that make Imparja Cup so special. He is awesome.’’ Bush girls ace it Dale Fletcher IMPARJA CUP BUSH Potatoes have run away with a 21-run win to take out the Women’s Community Imparja Cup against Congress 1 at Flynn Drive in Alice Springs on Saturday. The locally-based side went through the tour- nament undefeated and captain Christine Ponter was thrilled with the level of sports- manship throughout the week-long event. ‘‘Everyone had a ball and we won every game, but it was the enthusi- asm which was the highlight,’’ Ponter said. ‘‘We weren’t strict on the fundamentals of the game, we just wanted as many indi- genous girls to get out there and have a go.’’ Best afield Nadia Cox and Carmen Butcher both made 30 for the Bush Potatoes, while La Saville combined an un- beaten 14 with two cru- cial wickets, as the de- fending champions restricted Congress to just 7-97 from their 14 overs. Tess Garoni top scored for Congress 1 with 29, while Sheralee Fitz added 14. ‘‘We were basically a local team with an im- port from Mount Isa who wanted to play,’’ Ponter said. ‘‘It was a real team effort today; Carmen was fabulous every game and Nadia was just dynamic. ‘‘Angel Akarana be- hind the stumps too was electric but the highlight for me was 64-year-old Wendy Cochrane, just fantastic.’’ Ponter also was in charge of the Alice Grubs team and she hopes there will be more teams in next year’s event. ‘‘This level is all about getting new players to play and if we can get a few of these girls into club cricket then I’m sure there will be a flow- on effect from there,’’ she said. West climb to top of ladder CRICKET Warren Thomson Gapview Works’ Dan Gardiner hits out against West on Sunday Picture: CHARLIE LOWSON WEST has an outright lead at the top of the A-grade one-day ladder after defeating Gapview Works by six wickets on Sunday at Albrecht Oval. A great team bowling performance bowled out Gapview Works for 101 in the 33rd over. Imparja Cup import Jack Flynn, Paul Scarfone, Simon Coutts and Leith Hiscox took two wickets each, while Jayden Dick bowled well for his 1/10 off six overs. West were at 3/24 in their run chase, but a 36-run partnership be- tween Ross Fraser and Hiscox got West back in the box seat. Then Fraser went on to make an unbeaten 56 as he combined with Nick Whyte to get their side home in 19 overs. Fraser has batted well all season, and he was pleased to finally score a half-century. ‘‘The boys have kept saying to see it through and I’m really pleased as it was an important win for us,’’ he said. ‘‘It was a good track and I managed to have a few good partnerships and spend time in the middle. We had 45 overs to get 100 runs, so our plan was just to be positive.’’ It was an important win as the Bloods need to keep ahead of Federal ASbuild and Gapview Works, who both have one game in hand. ‘‘It’s really tight and that is great for Alice Springs cricket,’’ Fraser said. ‘‘We’re just looking forward to bagging a couple more wins and getting into the final.’’ Dan Gardiner top-scored for Gapview Works with a valuable 32 and Ben Ellis chipped in with 18. Ellis then took 3/38 off seven overs, while his captain Alex Marsh took 1/30 from nine overs. Rovers’ first win bowls over Demons CRICKET Warren Thomson Harry Weeks PROBUILD Rovers have won their first A-grade game of the season, defeating Fed- eral ASbuild by four wickets on Sunday at Jim McConville Oval. Chasing 149 to win, Harry Weeks and Daniel Clarke got PROBuild Rovers off to a good start with a 52-run part- nership getting them to 2/63. Weeks was out for 26, while Clarke hung around in a few more partnerships until he was dismissed on 29 at 5/109. PROBuild Rovers captain Matt Paterson-Nicolai then produced a valuable cap- tain’s knock, scoring an un- beaten 34 to get his side home with one over remaining. Earlier in the day, the trio were superb with the ball, taking three wickets each, while Robert Maloney took the final wicket. Paterson-Nicolai was pleased for his side to finally get some reward for the hard work they’ve put in this season. ‘‘We’ve done a lot of hard work and it’s good we finally won one,’’ he said. ‘‘We talked about about batting in partnerships and batting out our overs and we knew that if we batted out our 45 overs, we would win the game. ‘‘We tried different things. We opened up the bowling with (spinner) Harry Weeks, who did great and got a wicket in his first over. ‘‘We saved Daniel Clarke, who is our best bowler, for the middle overs and he did well, so he and Harry set up both our batting and our bowling. ‘‘Robert Maloney and Mitch Hattam both bowled well. Everyone chipped in.’’ It was a disappointing re- sult for Federal ASbuild, but the main positive was Sam Clifton’s 66 in his first game back, and NT under-13 repre- sentative Tom Nixon stood up to score an unbeaten 15. They combined for a great partnership to get their side from 8/77 to 9/141 and event- ually all out for 148.