Round 7 did no favours for Belgrave Cricket Club this week with only Under 17s and Under 13s providing any success.

The firsts faced off against long-time foes Johnson Park.  Both sides were on equal points after the washout of round 6, Johnson Park inside the four, Belgrave out.  The boys won the toss and posted 156, probably not quite enough on the Belgrave ground, and so it proved to be.  Lazarus Vozzo  batted well for 56 while Doug Oaten (31) and Jay Windross (34) provided important support, whilst the encouraging reappearance of Fluff Toms provided this years highest 8th wicket partnership of 35 runs with Doug.  Unfortunately the ball didn't do the talking after tea and Johnson park cruised their way to 2/173 and a comprehensive win.  Fluff took a wicket "on debut" and Voz took the other wicket on offer.  After the break the boys have to travel to St Johns which becomes a must win match after slipping a game away from the four.

The seconds were out to test whether Nug could remain unbeaten as skipper after collecting a valuable 3 points last week.  All concerned were pretty happy to be fielding first at Knox Gardens on the billiard table surface, but wickets proved hard to come by against one of the grades top sides.  The Falcons romped to 6/227 in spite of some great bowling, especially by openers Chillie Con Carney and Nathan Gaywood.  Unfortunately after plenty of playing and missing the batsmen just refused to get themselves out and after 15 or so overs the runs began to flow too freely.  Chillie ended up with the good figures of 3/30 after taking 3 wickets in 4 balls in the last over of the day, Nathan finished on 1/34 after bowling some great deliveries, yet taking a wicket with one of the few shockers he bowled, while another "debutent", Rick Wulz reappeared to bowl tidily, but wicketless.   The batting scorecard showed far too many cheaplt sold wickets with only Skipper Nugget playing throught a back injury to top score with 69 not out including a 50 run partnership with Evergreen Wittman (37) including 3 threes, the running of which was not appreciated.  The twos simply must beat Rowville in the first game after the break in they are to keep off the bottom and stare straight at relegation.

After being washed-out against the bottom side last week, the thirds find themselves precariously placed outside th four after going down to Lysterfield.  The visitors posted 171, but for the loss of only 3 wickets.  Sean Connolly bowled well taking 1/15 off his 9 overs while Eggy took 2/41, while Justin Harvey continued to come along nicely going for only 10 runs off his 7 overs.  With the bat, the boys kept wickets in hand, but just scored too slowly, running out of overs on 7/142.  Again Eggy earned Brownlow votes making 51* while Dana made 30 and Anton chipped in 21.  With a meeting against top side Aura Vale after the break, the mocking birds are going to need to be on their toes.

 After the shock of the Hoppner/Chaproniere opening bowling partnership last round, cricket lovers around the globe held their breath this week to see what the 4th XI think-tank might see as this round's secret weapon.  Certainly nothing to do with batting if the megre 72 run score posted is any indication.  the scorebook was liberally punctuated with zeros as only evergreen Start Harvey (25) and just plain old green David McNamara (35*) provided the only resistance to the Aura Vale bowling onslaught.  In reply, although youngsters Dylan Lowe (2/9)and Sam Parker (1 ball 1 wicket), and skipper Chappy (2/8) did well, Aura Vale scrambled to their target and took the points leving the fourths also teetering precariously outside finals contention, and needing to pull up their socks in the new year.