The region’s cricketers were met with mild and sunny weather for the start of the Horsham Cricket Association season on Saturday.

The Brim-Kellalac-Sheep Hills club started their experience in this competition with a solid win in the A grade, but a loss in the B grade.

A Grade – BKSH 9/192 (L Dosaston 58, T Bell 48, H McCredden 19) defeated Bullants 153 (K Macgregor 4/24, T Bell 3/31)

On the Brim ground, the home team batted first and hit up 192 for the loss of nine wickets in their 45 overs, with Leigh Dovaston making the top score of 58 and Tim Bell next best with 48, and they combined for a third wicket partnership of 65 which set up their competitive total.

With the ball, Kobe Macgregor took four wickets and Bell followed up his batting with three wickets, with the last four wickets falling for just seven runs, to have the Bullants 39 runs short of their target.

B Grade - BKSH 113 (E Shilling 27, J Hadley 17) lost to Tigers 4/128 (A Ciemcioch 2/19)

On the Dimboola Road Oval in Horsham, BKSH batted first and after a solid start with a partnership of 57 runs between Ethan Shilling (27) and Glenn Pearse (31) for the first wicket, the next best partnership was just 17 between Dale Stephens (12) and Jack Hadley (17), and with wickets regularly falling towards the end of the innings, they finished with 113 from 39 overs.

The Tigers took just 26 overs to overcome this total, but they did lose four wickets in the process, with Aiden Ciemcioch taking two of them.

Next week, the A grade are at home again to the Horsham Saints who lost to Lubeck-Murtoa on the weekend, and the B grade travel to Dudley Cornell Park to take on the Colts, who are still an unknown this season after having the bye in the first round.

Unfortunately, the Blackheath-Dimboola C grade team had to forfeit their match to Laharum, and with a bye next weekend, they now look forward to hitting the pitch for the first time this season the following Saturday when they host the Tigers who struggled in the opening match against Lubeck-Murtoa.

The West Wimmera Warriors A grade had the bye this weekend, but their C grade team got the club off to a positive start with a seven wicket victory over Natimuk.

C Grade – Natimuk 90 (J Crowhurst 2/8, Fill-in 2/8, G Trenery 2/23) lost to West Wimmera Warriors 3/93 (J Dickinson 65*, T Braendler 18)

Natimuk won the toss and elected to bat first on their home ground, and were dismissed late in their allocated overs for a team total of 90, with captain Callum Cameron dominating the scorecard with 27. For the Warriors, seven bowlers took wickets, with Jack Crowhurst, Greg Trenery, and a fill-in taking two each.

Jobe Dickinson was the stand-out with the bat; having opened the innings, he finished undefeated on 65 not out, and Tim Braendler contributed 18.

In round two, the A grade will have their first hit out when they make the long trip to the foothills of the Grampians to take on Laharum, who had a last over victory over the Tigers, while the C grade will take on Homers who are yet to take the field this season after the bye on Saturday, at the Sunnyside ground in Horsham.