Forestry beat Bridgetown to be named 2021/2022 Warren Blackwood Cricket Association champions

Bridgetown overcame a brave Forestry side by 35 runs on Saturday to be crowned Warren Blackwood Cricket Association champions.

Forestry won the toss and elected to bat, with opening batters Dan Ward (48) and Kayne Aitken (20) having an opening partnership of 70. Bridgetown fought back removing the two openers and putting Forestry on the back foot with Hugh Mitchell (9-2-23) and Laurence Grant (5-2-14).

The middle part of the innings became tough for Forestry with wickets falling before Brock Tempra (15) and Andrew Tuthill (19) began to slow the game down and tried to start to rebuild the innings.

After both of them were dismissed some late runs from Kallan Fall (18*) and Braden Gibellini (6*) saw Forestry’s total go past 167.

As Bridgetown took to the crease, Forestry knew they had a tough job ahead defending a small total from a very good batting lineup in Bridgetown.

Hugh Mitchell (31) and James MacAlinden (25) opened the batting and got Bridgetown off to a great start before Jared Johnston (9-4-29) with a man of the match spell, removing the two dangerous wickets of Mitchell and Mitch Clothier (0) in consecutive balls saw the game swing in Forestry’s favour.

The game was on a knife’s edge with the possibility of going either way before Forestry players Connor Ipsen (8.2-2-24) and Aitken (5-2-13) took the game away from Bridgetown with marvelous bowling spells.

The last number of wickets for Bridgetown fell quite rapidly on the afternoon as Forestry held the batsmen back from making any real impact on the game.

The team from Manjimup came away with the win by 35 runs and were presented the Thompson Cup after being crowned the Warren Blackwood Cricket Association 2021/22 premiership team.

It was a rollercoaster season for Bridgetown, who managed to make it back to the grand final for the second season in a row after losing the first five matches of the 2021/22 season.

For Forestry their season went very well and the win in the grand final was thoroughly deserved.

Their season included a nine-game winning streak in the middle block of the season, a big win over local rivals Manjimup in the semifinals and several great performances from seasoned and new players.