Lavery mastery lifts North Kalgoorlie to decisive first-up victory in B-grade

Nick Lavery’s stunning debut for North Kalgoorlie against Hannans on Saturday in the Eastern Goldfields Cricket Association’s B-grade competition snared him five wickets that led a 147-run victory at Wallace Park.

A two-time winner of the Goldfields sports star of the year award for hockey but with no experience in organised cricket, Lavery was brought on in the ninth over of the Twenty20 clash and struck with his first ball when he trapped Nirmaljit Singh in front.

Two overs later, Lavery dismissed Sam Belhamine, Rizwan Khan and Matt Gill in the space of four deliveries and he eventually finished with 5-0.

Norths earlier compiled 4-201 on the back of solid batting from Scott Nelson (61 off 33 balls; eight fours; two sixes), Alijaah Evans (45 off 31 balls; five fours; two sixes), Charlie Edwards (24 off 22 balls), Vivek Sharma (23 off 19 balls), and captain Glenn Gascoyne (not out 21 off 16 balls).

Lavery said his appearance was “filling a void” for Norths, after he had earlier joked to teammate Nick Willis — who he also works with as a local fireman — that he could perhaps help make up the numbers if ever needed.

“I am self-diagnosed as one of the worst cricketers — whether it be in the backyard, or beach cricket,” Lavery said.

“I’d never even faced a cricket ball in the nets, but I told Nick that it ever they were struggling, I’d chuck the pads on or roll the arm over, but don’t expect too much.

“We had a joke about it, but then he texted me on Thursday asking if I could fill-in on Saturday, and my response was that they must be really struggling.

“I don’t know if what I bowled even has a class — I guess little finger spinners, or off-spinners.

“It was nothing fancy, and I’m not sure I can ever back that up.”

Lake View defeated Great Boulder by 56 runs in the other match, underpinned by Daniel Hood’s aggressive 59 off 35 balls.

It included 10 fours, and Darcy Hunter (not out 21 off 14 balls) and Matt Ruly (20 off 16 balls) also made solid contributions.

Anthony Thomsen led Great Boulder’s attack with 2-14 and later to-scored with 32 off 41 balls, underpinned by five boundaries in the side’s 7-102.

Hunter led the attack with 2-18.