Captain Alistair Taylor produced his best knock of the season, notching up two 50-run-plus partnerships on his way to 114 before eventually holing out to opposition skipper Tom Garwood (4-69).

Number eight bat Luke Badham (eight boundaries) added a handy 41 not out for the Lions, with Sam Lockett and Jesse Homan the only other multiple wicket-takers for the Blues.

Riverside had eight overs to survive at the end of the day but couldn’t go in unscathed as spinner Clayde White snared the crucial wicket of Garwood, leaving Riverside at 1-19 heading into next week.  

“We got some really good partnerships working and we were pretty happy with 284 on that wicket,” Taylor said after the game. 

“It could have been easy for us to fall down again after last weekend but we came out with the right attitude and had a really good week at training this week which helped, so I’m rapt with how the boys all responded with three changes in the side as well.”

Taylor said the wicket of Garwood had been a real bonus leading into next week. 

“To get them 1-19 at stumps we’re rapt with today.

“He’s a really good player, he’s the kind of player who could bat all day next week and get a big score and take the game away from us so we were rapt to get him late in the day.”

WESTBURY will fancy its chances of getting one over South Launceston next weekend after it dismissed the Knights for a below-par 117 at Ingamells Oval.

A slow wicket and some tight bowling from the Shamrocks ensured no Knight made it past 30 as Liam Ryan collected his best-ever first grade figures, snagging 3-13 off 6.5 overs.

Sean Stevenson (38 not out) then saw the Shamrocks to 2-67 at the end of play with Casey Young and James Beattie the Knights’ sole wicket-takers. 

“Everyone across the board contributed today and that helped us to be in the position we’re in at the moment,” Westbury captain Richard Howe said. 

“We’ve still got a job to do next week but at two for 60-odd we’d like to think we could get those runs but we’ve still got another tough 50 or so runs to get before we get first innings.”

Howe said all his bowlers had toiled hard throughout South’s innings. 

“Liam Ryan took three wickets but all the bowlers did a really good job today.

“We just plugged away, we stuck to our plan all day.”