The victorious Knights celebrate.
SOUTH Launceston is the 2012-13 NTCA first grade premier after defeating Westbury on first innings points after an entertaining final day's play in the grand final at the No.1 Ground yesterday.
Resuming at 6-218, at the start of the final day, the Knights batsmen denied the Shamrocks the quick wickets they were seeking batting through the first session largely unscathed.
Cody Weedon and Jeremy Jackson combined in an important 90-run partnership for the seventh wicket with Weedon in particular playing some aggressive strokes and having a bit of luck as he pushed on from his overnight score of 52 not out to make a great century knock of 108.
Weedon was dismissed just short of lunch but Jackson finished 37 not out as South was eventually bowled out about half an hour into the second session for 327, a lead of 136 runs on the first innings.
Westbury started its second innings chasing quick runs to erase the deficit and try to set a lead to give itself a chance of bowling South out a second time in the final session.
The Shamrocks declared at 7-186, after 27 overs, with Matthew Battle making 41 and West Ripper top scoring with 42 - a lead of 50 runs with an hour left to play.
South had some anxious moments at the start of its second innings losing two quick wickets to Michael Lukic to slump to 2-0, but Mark Nutting (19 not out) and Nathan Philip (21 not out), steadied the innings and denied Westbury an unlikely victory.
The Knights were 3-45, off 20 overs, when the game finished giving South its first premiership for 10 years.
``We knew Westbury would throw everything at us and they are a class outfit and would come hard at us today,'' South coach Ben Austen said.
``We had to be prepared to play six hours of good cricket.
``Going in as underdogs we were able to play a positive brand of cricket which got us in front on the first innings and we continued that way at the start of today.
``We only had to chase 50 runs with only an hour to play but the mindset plays a bit of a part in how you go about certain things in that situation and we fell five runs short of an outright victory.
``For us it is a sweet victory considering the opposition we played against because they are a very good side who we respect.''
Westbury coach Adrian Tudor said the grand final defeat was a disappointing end to the Shamrocks' season.
``We gave it our all today and it all hinged on us knocking over those four wickets and to South's credit they toughed it out,'' he said.
``At the end of the day we weren't good enough over the three days and that's the nature of the beast.
`` If you don't bring it into the final you end up losing and we lost it in the first session on day one and they put us under a lot of pressure.''
Weedon received the Ricky Ponting Medal as the player of the grand final.