Jeparit has taken a significant step in their quest to defend the West Wimmera Cricket Association title that thy won last season when they earned an important six points from their clash with an undermanned Kiata team at Jeparit on Saturday afternoon.

With this win the Redbacks are comfortably in second place on the ladder, having moved 12 points, or two wins, ahead of Kiata.

With the Nhill Tigers needing only one more win from the remaining three games to confirm a place in the grand final and Winiam all but out of the race, interest will focus on the tussle between Jeparit and Kiata for remaining place in the season decider.

In the second game of the round Winiam was forced to forfeit to the Nhill Tigers due to a lack of available players.

At Sir Robert Menzies Park Kiata invited Jeparit to bat first, and this decision paid off immediately when the first batsman was dismissed before any runs were on the board. This was followed by two partnerships in excess of forty runs which laid the foundation for a challenging target.

Liam Preston made the top score of the innings, but remained one run short of his maiden half century for the club when he was on 49 not out at the end of the innings. Opener Adrian King contributed 34, and Jeremy Preston with 18 and Jakob Cocks with 11 also made useful contributions the Redback's total of 6 for 145.

The leading bowler was Lee Marra with two wickets for 12 runs from 6 overs, and four other bowlers took one wicket each.

Kiata's run chase started strongly with nearly half of the deficit eliminated before the fall of the first wicket, after Josh Lees (43) and Josh Cramer (40) posted an opening partnership of 70.

The only other batsman to make it into double figures was Damien Dickinson, who made 17 batting at number five, and the other six batsmen contributed only four runs between them.

Above - some big hitting late in their innings was not enough to get Kiata the points on Saturday at Jeparit.

Jeremy Preston and Justin Knorpp took two wickets each and Brad Keller and Adrian King took one each.

With Kiata batting to players short their innings came to a close at 115, which gave Jeparit a win by 30 runs.

Ladder after Round 6

     Points %
Nhill Tigers 30 1.251
Jeparit 24 1.105
Kiata 12 0.994
Winiam      6 0.641

Round Seven Preview

The last round before the Christmas break will be played next Saturday when Jeparit will travel to Winiam where they will need to play at their best to ensure that they maintain their hold on second place on the ladder, whilst Kiata will host the Nhill Tigers on the Nhill College ground and have the opportunity to show that they are worthy of staying in the premiership race if they can overcome the form team of the competition.

The season will then resume in February with two two day games before the final at the start of March.

Round Seven - Saturday 2 December 2017

Winiam v. Jeparit at Winiam
Kiata v. Nhill Tigers at Nhill College

Round Six Results

Nhill Tigers defeated Winiam on forfeit.

Jeparit 6 for 145 defeated Kiata 115

Jeparit First Innings

B Keller ct J Harding b. J Lees 0
A King ct J Cramer b. L Marra 34
J Preston ct C Ross b. S Alexander      18
L Preston not out    49
J Knorpp ct R Voltjen b. L Marra 0
J Crowhurst         b. D Dickinson 7
J Cocks ct T Alexander      b. J Cramer 11
S Leach not out    0
Sundries       26
TOTAL    6 for 145

Kiata Bowling

        O      M      R      W
J Lees 8 2 23 1
J Cramer 7 2 26 2
T Alexander 8 0 18 1
S Alexander      3 0 23 1
D Dickinson 8 2 33 1
L Marra 6 1 12 0

Kiata First Innings

J Lees ct A King b. J Knorpp 43
J Cramer L.B.W. b. J Preston 40
J Harding    b. B Keller 0
T Alexander      L.B.W. b. J Preston      0
D Dickinson    b. J Knorpp 17
L Marra ct L Preston      b. A King 2
S Alexander Run Out    0
C Ross ct J Cocks b. A King 2
A Rintoule not out &n 0
Sundries       10
TOTAL    115

Jeparit Bowling

        O      M      R      W
G Grinter 3 0 28 0
J Crowhurst      5 0 25 0
J Preston 8 2 16 2
B Keller 8 1 22 1
J Knorpp 4 1 15 2
A King 2 0 6 2