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2009 Dowling Championships After many months of preparation the Dowling Shield Championships got underway on the 19th January with our first game against South East Seagulls at the Junction Oval, which saw us go down by 21 runs.
South East Seagulls 5/209 Purton 2-36 def Western Spirit 10/188 Freeman 74 Duxson 23 Our next game was against South East Country Sharks at Merv Hughes Oval, which after being in a winning position with the opposition needing 48 runs off the last 10 overs saw us go down in the 47th over.
South East Country Sharks 7/170 Purton 3-41 def Western Spirit 9/166 Freeman 48 Purton 45 It was off to Harry Trott Oval to play against Northern Rivers, who we defeated in a practice game at Rochester in December, however this time around they had their full strength team available and we went down fighting to lose by 32 runs. Northern Rivers being the eventual winners of the Dowling Shield.
Northern Rivers 7/205 Armistead 2-24 def Western Spirit 3/173 Freeman 82no Sobotniki 45 Hoping for our first victory it was back to Merv Hughes Oval to play against Outer East Eagles, after being dead and buried at 7/61 chasing 190, an 88 run 8th wicket partnership between Leigh Sobotniki and Laird John almost got us over the line, however it wasn’t to be, eventually going down in a nail biter by 1 run.
Outer East Eagles 7/191 Duxson 3-51 def Western Spirit 10/190 Sobotniki 87 John 56 Our final game for the Championships saw us travel to Ivanhoe to play the Mallee Murray Bulls, who had defeated us in a practice game in December at Gunbower, this time we managed to turn the tables in a tense finish to win by 3 runs.
Western Spirit 4/239 Gale 72no Sobotniki 59 Andrews 38 Freeman 32 Purton 20no def Mallee Murray Bulls 10/236 Sobotniki 5-43 The Western Spirit boys were a pleasure to coach and need to be congratulated on the way they carried themselves both on and off the field during a tough week of cricket, surprising as the results may show we were in a winning position everyday, however, our decision making under pressure did let us down at times. Jeff Dean
Western Spirit Coach | 
