Dave Field stars for Snipers in grand final victory

Having spent much of the season fighting for form, both personally and as a team, Field said that at the Christmas break, the last thing he expected was to make the final. 

"A month ago, we were hopeless," Field said. 

"These guys [the Pirates] flogged us, we had no numbers, we were struggling. We sat down and said we need to improve or not even worry, and we did and turned it around." 

Turn it around they did, in the most emphatic fashion. The Snipers won the toss and elected to bat first on a superb Victoria Park strip. 

Field and Allan Neill opened the batting, and added 49 for the first wicket. 

Neill departed for 17, but Field continued with the assistance of Josh Payton (30) and Chris Rawlinson (25) before falling for a purposeful 63 with the score at 3-118. 

From that point, the Snipers lost wickets consistently, but the platform provided by Field was enough to get them to 9-162 by the end of the innings. 

The Pirates were hopeful, as the total was not as much as it might have been had Field's pull shot found a gap instead of the forward square leg, but still an imposing target on a wicket which has not historically favoured the chasers. 

While the Pirates fought all the way to the end, and managed to survive for 27.4 overs, their chase never got going and they only accrued 62 runs. 

Rawlinson and Bayley Maher starred among the Snipers' bowlers, with six wickets between them, while Field backed up his half-century with a wicket of his own, which altogether earned him the Man of the Match award. 

"I was seeing them good," Field said. 

"I was disappointed with the shot I got out on, but it was good. I knew we needed a big score to make it hard for them because they bat deep.

"We had to be a bit proactive batting, and look for the runs where we could." 

The A Grade final was played at the same time as the B and C Grade finals. Full reports will be published later in the week.