George Town batsman Rohan Pooley at the crease in the match against South Launceston. Picture: PAUL SCAMBLER
GEORGE Town is the 2012-13 Greater Northern Cup premier after beating South Launceston by 125 runs in the grand final played at Crothers Oval yesterday.
The victory was the club's first A-grade premiership and final in about eight years.
South won the toss and elected to field, the Saints made the most of their chance to bat, scoring 231.
Scott Semmens and opening partner Marshall Pooley got their side off to a brisk start at 0-79, off 17 overs, and went on to notch up a century partnership before Pooley was dismissed for 33 off 77 balls, with the score 1-108.
Semmens was the standout with the bat, top scoring with 77 off 87 balls, setting the foundation for a competitive score. Daniel Newton made 36 off 37 balls and combined in another valuable partnership with Scott Driessen (21).
Cody Weedon picked up 4-53 to be South's best bowler.
The Knights lost opener Warwick Johnson to be 1-18, wickets fell regularly including two in the 28th over to leave them in trouble at 6-98.
Chris Hay top scored with 43 off 44 balls, and was South's best hope of rescuing the innings, but when he went wickets continued to fall and South was out for 106.
"We've worked hard as a club for a long time to be competitive in all aspects of one-day cricket," George Town coach Rohan Pooley said.
"This is reward for a lot of hard work over a long time and there were a few emotions after the final wicket from the senior players who have played for a long time and copped a few hidings to finally get some silverware."
Pooley praised the innings of Semmens on a difficult wicket early.
"He played with a bit of luck and backed himself and there were a couple of tough catches that went down, but he stuck to his game which was to play shots and take on the bowlers.
"We asked him to get us off to a good start and he batted superbly for us and with Marshall putting on a 100-run partnership set the foundation for us to make a pretty good total of 231."
The Saints bowling combination of Gabe Bell and Gavin Nutting did their job picking up important early wickets in their opening spell of the South Launceston innings.
