A Sweeney Cup fixture between Binalong and Bookham was the highlight of the cricketing weekend, and it provided as thrilling a finale as spectators hoped. 

The home side came into the affair as firm favourites, emerging from the Christmas break as the reigning table-toppers and the team to beat so far. 

With the context set, the match was seemingly ready to follow the script. 

Bookham batted first, and battled to a total of 6-162, which wicketkeeper Dave Hazell believed was below par. 

“We never really had enough runs, we didn’t think,” Hazell said. 

“We thought we were in a bit of trouble at drinks, they were two for about 110.

“After that we thought we’d give everything we had to them.” 

Although Hazell conceded that Bookham “can be competitive” on their day, the match seemed lost when Binalong were cruising toward the total. 

However, the home side had not counted on the wiles of veteran Roy Robertson, who finished with 4-20 from his eight overs. 

“Roy just pulled out his experience, he knows where to bowl at a crucial time and it worked out well,” Hazell said. 

The set batsmen for Binalong fell victim to some unfortunate shot selection, and one key area of improvement from Bookham ensured that they capitalised on these errors. 

“There was some good fielding by us,” Hazell said. 

“We took most of our catches that came, and a bit of pressure built … [it was] a far better fielding effort this week.” 

Despite Bookham’s sub-par first innings score, it might have been a whole lot worse were it not for Macauly Harvie (54) and Charlie Crozier (24), who held the innings together with a crucial partnership. 

Hazell lauded the effort of Crozier in particular, who at only 14 years old had the fortitude and solidarity of defence to hunker down and enable a resurgence. 

“He held one end together [and] did a great job,” Hazell said. 

In the end, Binalong collapsed from 2-110 to 148 all out, a mere 15 runs short of their target. 

This loss sees Binalong slip to second place on the ladder, while Bookham managed a rise to fifth.