Following a first round bye, the defending premiers served notice to rivals that it would be among the frontrunners again in 2014-15.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, Creeks suffered an early blow when captain Gavin Wake was sent packing with just nine runs to his name.

The Unicombs – Chris and Steve (25) – steadied the ship with a handy partnership, which yielded 32.

That was followed by a 42-run stand between Chris Unicomb and Clint Harman.

But, when both batsmen departed – Harman with 24 and Unicomb with 21, Creeks slipped to 4-87.

Warren Gillespie (14) and Ben Thomas (13) made late contributions, however the side could only manage a total of 118.

Max Hillier did the damage with the ball, snaring 4-23 off seven overs, while Greg Thrift picked up 4-26.

Glendon’s innings began poorly, being 1-0, and the team never recovered from the setback.

With Hamid Arain, Blake Cook, Hayden Edwards and Mark Unicomb bowling exceptional line and length, wickets fell at regular intervals.

Only Thrift (16), Harry Morrow (15) and Mal Hillier (11) offered any resistance as Glendon posted a meagre 61 – a deficit of 57.

Arain and Edwards shared the honours with the ball with 3-16 each.

Unicomb captured 2-6 and Cook took 2-21.

Valley v JPC

A SUPERB team performance enabled Valley to come away with the points at the expense of JPC at Cook Park 3.

Stunning bursts from Joe Leighton, Sam Barry and Tom Cox put the issue beyond doubt from the outset of the match.

The trio combined to claim a total of nine wickets for just 48 runs.

Individual knocks by Nick Stokes (21), Pat Fitzgerald (17) and Luke Knight (12) allowed JPC to post 72.

But, the plaudits went to Leighton, who grabbed 3-8, Barry (3-10) and Cox (3-30).

Valley passed the JPC target with just three scalps down, thanks to Chris Duffie (35) and Ben Lapham (26).

Mal Davis then went on with the job.

His 85, which included five sixes and nine boundaries, and contributions from Jacob Carey (13), Justin Baxter (12 not out) and Leighton (11) saw Valley reach 6-194.

Fitzgerald and Shane Harman returned 2-54 and 2-30 respectively.

Trailing by 122, JPC made its way back to the middle and was 1-51 at stumps.

Despite losing Fitzgerald for six, Ash Borg remained unbeaten on 27 and Josh Harvey 16 not out.  

THE bowlers dominated the second grade fixtures at the weekend.

Valley’s Glen Russell bagged 6-23 in his outfit’s triumph over Creeks.

Daniel Tracey produced the magnificent figures of 6/7 for Creeks, despite being in a losing side.

Muswellbrook Souths’ Sunny Cheema also walked away with 5-27 in their clash with Glendon.