Playing just across the way, at Victoria Park, the Bowning Buffaloes were dominated by the top side, which are once again showing ominous form at the right time of the season.

The Piranhas lost the toss, and Bowning decided to bat first in relatively good conditions. The Golf Club were deadly with the ball early, restricting the Buffaloes to 60 off the first 30 overs.

But things turned sour for the Golf Club, with Bowning’s lower-order players smashing 83 off the last 15.

“It was a disappointing end to the innings there,” Golf Club captain Robert Field said.

“We were playing really well, and then we had a bit of a lapse and they were suddenly on top.”

Bowning completed its innings on 143, and all of a sudden had something to defend. Andrew Swaffield starred for Bowning notching up 43. Dave Brown proved a thorn in their side, however, taking three scalps for the Golf Club.

Despite looking good on paper, 143 was never going to be enough for Bowning to defend. It took 42 overs to get there, but the result was never in doubt, as the Piranhas lost just three wickets. Adrian Waters scored 52, and Robert Field got 40, before Daniel Poidevin continued his hot streak smashing 25 not out.

“We are batting really well,” Field told the Tribune.

“It’s just the bowling and fielding that we have to worry about. We are having trouble bowling teams out and taking our catches. Last season that was never a problem. We have to address that.”

The match between the Soldiers Club and the Pirates was scheduled for O’Connor Park, but the water-bombing choppers made that impossible and the game was moved to Bowning Oval.

While the Pirates have showed glimpses of form this year, that wasn’t on show at the weekend. They won the toss and batted in perfectly fine conditions but managed just 93 runs. Only Alex Waters, 26, and Nick Pollack, 17, got starts.

Steve Okkonen and captain David Field both got three wickets and made it tough for the Pirates to get a roll on.

In response the Snipers needed just 16 overs to chase down the small total. Chris Rawlinson and David Field both fired, making 53 not out and 39 respectively.

Brad Wylie said it was easily the Pirates worst performance of its 2012/2013 season.

“It was definitely our worst game of the year, we played really badly,” he told the Tribune.

On Saturday the Golf Club play the Snipers at Victoria Park in a top-of-the-table match-up, and the Pirates come up against Bowning in Bowning.

The Sweeney Cup teams had a competition bye at the weekend but they will all be back in action come Saturday.