The first NDCA grand final in 18 years without a Bowling Club Colts side didn’t disappoint the big crowd at Frank Smith Oval on Saturday. The competition this season was one of the closest in recent times, all four sides with a chance to be minor premiers until the last round. RSL ended on top and were slight favourites going into the grand final against the new Aussie Hotel Bulls. 

The Bulls batted first on what seemed to be an absolute road but made run scoring look hard thanks to some tight lines from Wasim ‘the Butcher’ Babar(10-1-23) and skimmer George (10-0-18). The Aussies had a solid start, 0-31 from 10 overs until Oliver Hoare (7-3-15) struck with 3 wickets in 3 overs including the prize scalps of Moby Tiles 15, D Rose for 12 and C Bourke 5. In big trouble Mick Walsh 25 and Stu Barton 24 got set and came up with a very handy 50-run partnership off 20 overs. Then enter man of the match Bill Berwick. Bill was clearly unplayable destroying the Bulls lower order taking a phenomenal 5 for 12 off 5 overs, leaving the Bulls with a very modest total of 114.

RSL, known for chasing down small totals, also found run scoring hard and made a very nervous start losing their first 4 wickets for 19 runs. Bourke (10-3-22) doing most of the damage with his sheer pace, picking up the butcher for a duck in the first over and last season’s Brewery Shield player of the year O Hoare for 4. Leading NDCA run scorer Jack Lupton looked the goods at the crease but fell to the Webster-esk bowling of Toby Miles (10-2-18) caught behind. As Mick Walsh did for the Bulls, the very experienced Peter Lupton set about getting RSL home. Batting with fellow old boy Skimmer got the score to 54 before Skim 13 was caught Taylor bowled Rose (10-2-16). A pair of ducks to Mick Hoare and G-train Fletcher left Lupo scratching his head until that man Berwick came to the crease looking to continue his form from the ball to the bat. 

With one hand on the shield and Berwick hitting everything out of the screws, the pressure got to them. Lupo threw his wicket away for 43 with the score on 87. Bill continued fighting his way to the total and it came down to the last over and the last ball. Two runs to win, 10 years of RSL heartache in the hands of father and son Glen and Bill Berwick. Adam Jermyn bowled the ball, Bill missed it and set off for the run, James Elias missed the stumps from a metre away, leaving it up to Mark ‘give it a flick’ Barton to shave the stumps and knock the bail off to deliver a premiership to the Aussie Bulls in their first season.

A fantastic end to a great season, thanks to those who helped out during the year.

Awards went to J Lupton with the most runs, highest average and best and fairest, B Berwick most wickets, D Rose best bowling average, Cale Dunn with the fielding award.

The cricket is not over, Nyngan firsts and seconds play in Cobar on Saturday 28th in the Shane Smith Memorial Trophy.

A bus will leave from BP at 8am.