LAUNCESTON has lost James Curran and Lachie Newland to the latter cause ahead of a crucial clash with Ulverstone, which Lions skipper Alistair Taylor has labelled an elimination final. 

Damien Jillett will play his second game of the season at the expense of Tom Bennett (unavailable) as the Lions chase a better batting effort. 

“We’ve had some really good games with the bat and in more recent times some real average games,” Taylor said. 

“That’s just coming from someone in the top four or five not putting their hand up and wanting to get a big score.”

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Burnie awaits a MOWBRAY side that has won two of its past three matches and could jump to seventh should it register another. 

Sagar Chhetri and second grade century-maker Rhys Watson will help cover for captain John LeFevre (Raiders), all-rounder Jimmy Storay (family Christmas gathering) and Blake Cassidy and Jarrod Freeman (under-19s).

“We’ve been really pleased with the games that we’ve won, in the middle of that we had a bit of a reality check against Devonport,” LeFevre said. 

“A few home truths were spoken to the team - our effort against Devonport was poor overall but we addressed that and we were able to turn it around against Latrobe.”

RIVERSIDE is looking to rectify two below-par batting performances and stay in touch with the top four with a win over Sheffield.

Skipper Tom Garwood said a 49-run partnership between youngsters Cooper Anthes and Jack Colgrave in last weekend’s loss was the blueprint for his batsmen.

“Over the year we’re going to have our good games and our not so good games, but it’s really just about getting the consistency throughout the whole year and the guys performing week in week out,” Garwood said.

“We’re outside the top four at the moment but with a couple of wins to finish the year we’ll sneak into finals.”

Alex Saunders is unavailable, allowing Ben Simpson to line up alongside brother James in his first A-grade match after an 85 in the twos. 

WESTBURY will continue its trend of making several changes as it prepares to face Devonport. 

Jake Williams (under-19s), Dane Anderson (unavailable) and Alex Kerrison and Jono Chapman (Raiders) will all miss, giving Jared Mason and Kieren Hume the chance to shine.

Hume will bat middle to lower order and provide a spin option in Kerrison and Anderson’s absence, while Mason took eight wickets in the opening three rounds. 

Skipper Richard Howe said the Orions were a tough team but backed his side in to continue its good run. 

“We played some pretty good cricket throughout so we’re pretty happy with the way we’re going,” Howe said.

Six consecutive wins and a finals spot is up for grabs for Tom Waller’s SOUTH LAUNCESTON at Latrobe. 

Sisitha Jayasinghe’s inclusion for James Lee (Raiders) is expected to be the sole change from the side that edged out Sheffield by nine runs last round. 

“It would have been nice to win by a little bit more, but at the start of the year we wanted to make winning a bit of a habit and a win like that shows we’re trying to do that,” Waller said. 

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