Behind The Stumps: Umpire commitment, Ballarat trip

THE WARRNAMBOOL and District Cricket Association's girls and women's cricket competitions will soon have dedicated umpires to officiate matches.

The WDCA has arranged for Cricket Victoria Umpires Adviser Jason Leonard Scott to travel to Warrnambool to provide training and coaching on umpiring for women.

Chairperson Gordon McLeod said the association was keen to train up women umpires to officiate the under 17 girls' matches and also for the inaugural WDCA women's competition, which is due to start soon.

A training night, which will go for an hour-and-a-half, is set for Monday, November 25 at 6pm at the Allan Lane Rooms at Friendly Societies' Park.

McLeod encouraged women interested in taking up umpiring to head to the training.

"It's an exciting initiative because umpiring has traditionally been male dominated and this is a great opportunity for women to get involved," he said.

"This is great for people to be trained up and eventually the WDCA will appoint them to matches and there will be payments for umpiring games."

MELBOURNE Renegades have kindly shouted two buses for the junior girls of the Warrnambool and District and South West cricket associations to travel to its game in Ballarat on Saturday.

WDCA chairperson Gordon McLeod said the Renegades had provided two 50-seater buses to transport fans to watch the women's side, which features south-west star Georgia Wareham, play the Melbourne Stars at Eastern Oval.

McLeod said 75 of the spots had already been snapped up and encouraged others who are interested in going to contact him.

The buses are set to leave Mack Oval at 11am on Saturday.

THE Western Waves' under 21 side finished its Victorian Country Cricket League campaign with one win and one loss.

The Waves' round one match against Barwon ended with a four-wicket defeat on November 10.

The Tim Bryce-coached side posted 5-199 after 50 overs with Jordi Withers (70) and captain Hamish Huffadine (45) as top scorers.

A three-wicket haul from all-rounder Harry Cashin, who also scored 34 with the bat, was not enough for the Waves to defend their total as Barwon chased down the target in the 46^th over.

The Waves gained redemption in the second match with a 101-run victory over South East Country on Sunday. Nestles all-rounder Jacob Hetherington was the star with 40 runs with the bat, 2-16 with the ball and also chipped in with a catch of the bowling of West Warrnambool's Damon Harrison.

Harrison (2-10), Glenn Moore (2-9), Sydney Ray (2-5) and Nick Robertson (1-16) all helped chip in with defending the Waves' total of 177.

Coach Bryce was proud of the way his side, which had an average age of 19, stood up to stronger and older teams.

He hoped all the players would take plenty of confidence back to their club cricket.

Jacob Hetherington (Nestles) 52 1-17, one catch; Rukshan Weerasinghe (Russells Creek) 43; Zavier Mungean (Brierly-Christ Church) 42*; Sam Howse (Port Fairy) 36, one catch; Nathan Murphy (Brierly-Christ Church) 32*; Benjamin Evans (Wesley-CBC) 4-4; Liam A Burgess (Woodford) 3-6; Jason Perera (Port Fairy) 3-13; Chris Higgins (Nestles) 3-18; Chetan Sharma (Woodford) 3-19; Mark Murphy (Brierly-Christ Church) 3-21;

Clinton Baker (Mortlake) 69*; Lahiru Fernando (Pomborneit) 60, 2-19 Jeffrey Rosolin (Heytesbury) 59; Tyson Hay (Terang) 57; Tim Fitzgerald (Bookaar) 48, 2-27; Bernard McLeod (Camperdown) 3-22; Fraser Lucas (Bookaar) 3-26; Bradley Salmon (Simpson) 3-36; Jack Lehmann (Mortlake) 2-7; Bradley Parsons (Mortlake) 2-14; Nick Frith (Camperdown) 2-2

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