The top two sides in the women's Cricket North league continued their seemingly inevitable march towards a grand final match-up with two more emphatic wins.
Already well clear of the other three sides, leaders South Launceston and second-placed Launceston showed no sign of easing off against Westbury and Riverside respectively.
The Knights were particularly ruthless at Ingamells Oval, rattling up a total of 4-177 off their 20 overs and then dismissing the home side for just 27 inside 13 overs with no batter offered the consolation of reaching double figures.
Belinda Wegman was pivotal to South's 150-run win, compiling her highest score of the season, 51 off 27 deliveries including six boundaries.
The Westbury attack had some joy, dismissing batters two to five for a combined total of just 12, Cayley Quill leading the way with figures of 2-12.
However, South were able to turn to a couple of their Greater Northern Raiders stars as Meg Radford and Amy McLauchlan put on an unbeaten last-wicket partnership of 110, sharing the load with similar contributions of 38 off 29 and 36 off 27 respectively.
The Knights bowlers continued the punishment, all five claiming wickets (including Caitlyn Webster who only bowled two balls) led by Ellie Mathews (3-4), supported by Zara Broomby and Skye Furlonge who took identical figures of 2-5 off three overs.
Five Westbury batters failed to score with the last five wickets falling for just one run.
Victoria Geale produced the individual performance of the round by smashing 80 off 50 deliveries, finding the boundary eight times, as South Launceston doubled Riverside's score.
The former Riverside High student appeared quite at home at Windsor Park, combining with the ever-reliable Ianthe Boden (55) to deliver a 115-run first-wicket stand.
Stacey Norton-Smith added a quickfire 38 before both she and Geale were run-out by Kate Sherriff at the death looking to maximise the score.
Hailee Harris (1-26) took the only wicket when she bowled Boden as Launceston settled for 3-188.
With Greater Northern Raiders Sherriff and Parkin at the top of the order, the Blues made a solid start but never recovered from losing 4-3 having reached 2-70.
Sherriff led the posse with a sharp-shooting 78, but had little support as Elyse Page's 15 was the next highest score. The Blues were all out in the final over for 94.
Three Blues bowlers claimed multiple wickets, headlined by Norton-Smith's 2-6 off four overs with support from Claire Alexander (2-11) and Charlotte Layton (2-29).
The competition will take a month-long break for Christmas, resuming on January 15 when South host Riverside and Launceston travels to Westbury.
After six rounds, South remain invincible, accumulating 20 points and an impressive net run rate of 5.1151.
With just a solitary loss to the Knights, Launceston sit second on 16 points having scored 540 runs, just 24 less than the ladder leaders, while also taking 11 more wickets (32 compared to 21).
Riverside sit third on eight points with Mowbray on four and league newcomers Westbury yet to score.
Rob Shaw
Heralding the impact of Tasmanian sport without saying "punching above its weight" is not as easy as it sounds.
Heralding the impact of Tasmanian sport without saying "punching above its weight" is not as easy as it sounds.
