THE SEASON’S biggest upset was loomed until the final overs when Wedderburn held out against a gallant Bridgewater on Saturday.
The Bulls, anchored to the bottom rung of the ladder with just one win, gave the leaders an almighty scare, but in the end fell just 10 runs short of victory in the one-day encounter.
Wickets fell steadily for the Band – at one stage they were 6-64 and chasing the Bulls’ 110 – who relied on veteran Danny Benaim’s top score of 28 to struggle past the century mark.
The Bulls shared around the wickets, with Tom McKinley outstanding in taking 2-12 off his full allocation of seven overs.
Toby and Nic Naughton, and Chas Pickering also took two wickets apiece as the Wedderburn batsmen fell at regular intervals.
The Band’s highest partnership was just 21 runs as batsmen struggled against tight bowling and good fielding from the young Bridgewater side.
The winning run came late in the 34th over with Wedderburn batting out the match.
The Bulls set a cracking pace in their innings and were cruising at 1-79 on the back of a 72-run second-wicket partnership between Harry McKinley (40) and Toby Naughton (33), but when they were dismissed three runs apart, mayhem ensued.
Bridgewater lost 8-27 and no other batsman made more than five runs, as Cameron Steel (3-11 off seven overs) and Finn Turnbull (2-13 off six) did most of the damage with the ball.
The Bulls had their strong side for the season with Saturday’s form showing the battle for fourth spot is far from over.
For Wedderburn, missing from the line-up in the first match back from the break were Will Holt, Adam Postle, Steve Giorlando and Jimmy Van de Wetering.