THE first title of the South West Cricket season is up for grabs on the first weekend.
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Twelve SWC clubs, including four not contesting division one in the season proper, will chase honours in the annual Twenty20 tournament today and tomorrow.
The first two knockout rounds are today at Pomborneit Recreation Reserve, Noorat Recreation Reserve and Mortlake’s D. C. Farran Oval.
Those who emerge undefeated progress to semi-finals at Noorat and Mortlake tomorrow, at 10.30am. The grand final is at Mortlake from 1.30pm.
Last season’s division one finalists Pomborneit, Noorat, Mortlake and Bookaar loom as the main chances to win the tournament.
Heytesbury Rebels, Cobden, Simpson and Terang also have claims, while division two sides Boorcan, Camperdown, Woorndoo and Princetown are underdogs.
Boorcan batsman Matt Boyle conceded the Dragons could struggle against better-credentialed rivals. But he was confident of a first-up win against Princetown.
He was pleased the tournament gave the lower-grade clubs an opportunity to test their credentials against top-grade opponents.
“The way the league has got it set up is very good,” he said.
“The division two sides play each other, you find out the best of the twos, then they get to play the division one sides.”
Boyle said the Dragons dropped back from division one because the competition had reverted to a mix of two-day and one-day matches.
“The last time there was two-day cricket, we started really well but by the end of the season we couldn’t hold out 75 overs,” he said.
“We were batting for 30 and fielding for 110. It just tortured our kids.”
Contesting division two is an opportunity for the Dragons’ youth brigade “to really dominate the twos”.
Jayden Barker, Ben Harty and Will Rowbottom, all 18, and 17-year-old Oscar Currell are among young cricketers the club has high hopes for.
“We’ll start in division two and work our way through,” Boyle said.
“Hopefully we can make finals both years and perform well and the kids might go ‘righto, we want to step it up now’.”
afawkes@fairfaxmedia.com.au