After a week of contemplating the plan of attack to gain 10 points MUCC skipper Paul Percy decided to declare overnight and have first crack at a Ringwood batting line up that was low on confidence after being dismissed for 85 the week before on the back of Nick Williams’ 6 for 28. Despite losing 10 overs of play due to rain the Students were still confident of taking 10 cheap wickets.

When Ellsmore, Harrop and Kennedy struck early to have the Rams 3 for 66 the Students were upbeat and could smell 10 points, however the Rams showed no interest of making a game of it and batted the day out finishing on 5 for 253 when both captains agreed to pull up stumps.

The fantastic first innings win by MUCC the previous week against the top side and back to back premiers puts them 2 points out of the 8 in 10th position requiring two wins out of the last three to play finals cricket.

Following a disappointing start to the match a week earlier, the 2nds were keen to pick up quick wickets and end the Ringwood innings with minimal damage. Matt King batted extremely well for the Rams and finished with 121, demonstrating what can be achieved with good concentration and patient batting. In the end we bowled Ringwood out for 271, a lead of 113. Wickets were shared around with multiples to Rankin (3/75), Van Cuylenburg (2/50) and Marshall (2/4).

With 61 overs still to play, MUCC had some pride to salvage and spoke of the need to bat the remainder of the day. Unfortunately we lost a couple of early wickets due to poor shot selection that gave Ringwood a sniff of outright victory. Dixon made a solid 46 including 7 boundaries, showing what he is capable of and some good resistance from the tail (Robertson, Van Cuylenburg and Goonan) ensured we prevented an outright defeat.

We remain in 6th place for the moment but will need better performances in the final 3 games to maintain a finals berth.

The VWCA XI had a break for the Australia Day weekend, on Saturday they take on Clifton Hill Collingwood.