JPC denied Valley from securing a hat-trick of crowns when taking out this afternoon’s nail biting SDCA First Grade T20 final at Howe Park.
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The undefeated T20 force did enough to hold off a fast finishing Valley unit thanks to a strong opening innings when posting 6/205.
As per usual, the Thrift contingent played the catalyst in the opening innings with a modest 22 from Greg followed by respective scores of 62 from Dan and Alex.
“The Thrifts were unbelievable,” JPC leader Shane Givney explained.
“It’s a credit to be able to play with Greg at 53, if you’re giving it a run around like he is then obviously you’re going well.”
“But to see all of the boys stick together and toughen it out after those first ten overs so well done to them.”
He continued, “We’re building something here.”
“They haven’t won it for a long time so we’re going to use this towards getting to the semi-finals and then the grand final because that’s where we want to be.”
The second innings would be labelled as the Levy show as Valley’s big hitter Nathan Levy cleared the fence to the applause of fans from both sides time and time after again.
He would finish with 88 before he was caught by JPC keeper Mick Taylor.
“It was a batsman’s paradise out there today but the century didn’t worry me,” Levy said.
“At the end of the day it’s just cricket.”
While that may be the case for some, JPC skipper Joshua Harvey rushed to his long time teammate Josh Rinkin to celebrate the victory after the final bowl run over came to completion at 5:11pm.
“This is the first final that Rink and I have been a part of and we have been playing together for 12 years now so this just means everything,” Harvey explained.
“We sort of made a hole for ourselves with our bowling but that happens and we made it in the end.”
“It’s taken a while but we made it in the end.”
Final result: JPC 6/205 (Alex Thrift 62, Daniel Thrift 62, Mick Taylor 27, Greg Thrift 22, Josh Harvey 2/49) defeated Valley 6/204 (Nathan Levy 88, Nathan Bagnall 35, Simon White 33, Daniel Storey 3/36).
