WOODEND won't care that the Gisborne District Cricket Association Twenty20 final was lacking in drama or a close finish.
A sharp bowling and fielding performance delivered Woodend a 39-run win against Sunbury United at Gilbert Gordon Oval.
Woodend made 5-146 after winning the toss and batting, bowling out United for 107 in reply in the 18th over.
But the margin was deceptive, with Woodend reducing Sunbury United to 7-35 in the chase and leaving the visitors with a near-impossible task.
Elliott Massina was Woodend's ace with bat and ball, making 40 before taking 4-18, three of his victims out-bowled.
Thick grass meant a stingy outfield and no value for shots along the ground or landing in the outfield.
Glenn Warner took the game on from the beginning, scoring 39 of Woodend's 50 runs through the first five overs.
United needed a breakthrough to stop the momentum and got one when Lance Watts threw down the stumps to run out Warren Else (14) in the eighth over.
Peter Jaeger then got the danger-man Warner caught for 51 in the outfield as the left-hander skied a ball to deep mid-wicket.
But removing both openers at 2-78 would not spark a collapse, with Massina and Brett Gardner (17) putting on 47, albeit with boundaries few and far between.
With wickets in hand, Woodend looked poised to attack the final five overs but failed to score boundaries as James Hughes (1-29) bowled well for United at the death.
Jaeger (1-13) and Jake Calleja (1-20) were United's only other wicket-takers.
While the crowd was baying for big swings in the final overs, the score of 5-146 looked like a winner from the opening stages of the United batting innings.
Daniel Heaney held his nerve at long-on to catch Hughes for 4 off Warren Else's bowling, with Lyndon Dowsett holing out himself for 2 the next over.
When Jaeger was caught thrillingly by Brett Beattie at third man for 4, Woodend had all the momentum.
Ryan Billinghurst tried to revive the innings by finding the fence, but just as he looked like getting into a groove he was yorked for 12 by a quicker ball from off-spinner Massina.
Massina then bowled Lance Watts in the same over, and when big-hitting Nathan Morse was bowled swinging across the line of leggie Scott Fuller, the game was gone.
Calleja (25) and Jessy Carroll (26) saved face for United with a 28-run stand for the ninth wicket, the latter and No.11 Jesse James getting the score to three figures.
But when Carroll skied a ball to Beattie at third man, the crowd favourite held the catch and started Woodend celebrations.
"We've been lucky to get away to good starts and 50 off the first five overs did that again," Massina said.
"It was tough batting, you had to run everything and it does take its toll after five or six overs. You had to hit the ball over the top into the outfield to get any value for your shots."
Massina said a bit of wind holding the ball up was important to his four-wicket haul.
Other better bowlers for Woodend were Else with 2-8 and Fuller with 2-28.
"The funny thing was, I dragged a couple down and they weren't really good balls," he said.
"I was a little bit lucky I guess."
Massina is back at Woodend after a season off, having previously played in the second and third XI at Premier club Northcote.
"We usually don't take [the Twenty20] overly seriously, we've been saying in the first side that if we play on Tuesdays like we do on Saturday it would be good for the club," he said.
"Hopefully we take a bit out of this and use it for the rest of the season."
Woodend qualifies for the Central Highlands Region Cricket Willow Twenty20 Cup to be held at Cricket Willow near Daylesford on January 22 and 26.
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