HOMERS and Rup-Minyip will meet at the weekend for a chance to lift the Horsham Cricket Association A Grade cup.
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Heading into the contest, top team Homers are looking strong, after demolishing Laharum in its semi-final last week.
The side made a mammoth 340 runs against Laharum, with captain Jarred Combe hopeful his batters can fire again in the grand final at City Oval.
“We have a number of key players peaking at the right time of the year and we will once again look for them to have big games in the grand final,” he said.
“Chris Hopper is doing damage with both bat and ball and Simon Hopper has hit good form with the bat recently. In the semi-final we had a good spread of run scorers and we will be looking for this again at the weekend.”
Homers also performed strongly with the ball in its semi-final, restricting Laharum to just 120 runs.
“Craig Britten and Jase Kannar have been bowling really well,” Combe said.
“Our bowling has been good without being great across the last two weeks but we feel we have a strong bowling line-up that can hopefully get the job done.”
We are once again looking forward to the challenge of playing Rup-Minyip. It's always a well fought out game when both teams meet.
- Jarred Combe
Combe expected the match-up between the league’s best two sides to be a close one.
“Both teams are evenly matched and are carrying good form into the grand final,” he said.
“We are once again looking forward to the challenge of playing Rup-Minyip. It's always a well fought out game when both teams meet.”
With Rup-Minyip’s captain and most dangerous batsman Travis Hair unavailable due to illness, stand-in captain Adam Carter said he hoped his side could win the contest for its missing captain.
“We would love to put in a good performance and win it for Travis,” he said.
Carter said his team would need to improve in the field if they are a chance to restrict Homers’ batting lineup.
“We have been a bit lacklustre in the field lately,” he said. “We need to take all of our catches. That has really let us down lately.”
The Blue Panthers put in a shaky batting display in their semi-final clash with the Horsham Saints last week, making 169.
Only two of the side’s batters managed to make a score above 25 runs.
Carter said his batters needed to put together some strong partnerships in the 100-over grand final to make a score that could challenge Homers.
“We definitely need some more partnerships,” he said.
“It’s such a long innings in the grand final. We would be hoping to get up to 300 runs.”
The final will take place at Horsham’s City Oval on Saturday and Sunday, starting from 11am on both days.
