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READ MORE - THE SEASON'S TOP PERFORMANCES
Huntly-North Epsom has spent much of its existence since 2001-02 filling the bottom rungs of the Bendigo District Cricket Association ladder.
But not this season - the Power are premiers.
Another long season looked ahead for the Power when they started 0-3, but their stunning one-run win over Golden Square in round four when they took 7-16 late on day two kickstarted a wave of momentum that came to a cresendo last weekend when they obliterated Square in the grand final at the QEO.
After cutting a swathe through the Golden Square batting line-up for just 128 on day one, the Power had raced to 2-211 early on day two when stumps were pulled after Ryan Grundy (100 n.o.) reached his century.
The Power's grand final dominance was the second year in a row a lengthy BDCA premiership drought has been broken.
Last year it was Sandhurst snapping a 39-year flag drought, while the Power's victory gave the stalwarts of the former North Bendigo something to cheer about on grand final weekend for the first time since 1991.
Who knows - maybe next season will be the year for White Hills (last flag in 1993) or Bendigo (1994) to finally end their dry spell.
Those at the QEO between noon and 12.30pm last Saturday will never forget the new-ball spell delivered by the Power's Mitch Whittle on day one of the grand final.
Whittle, whose place in the team had been in jeopardy due to an inner ear complication, gave the Power a start to the grand final that even in their most wildest of dreams they couldn't have imagined.
20 balls into his spell Whittle had the remarkable figures of 5-0 to reduce the highly-rated Square batting line-up to a rabble.
The 21-year-old's 20-ball blitz featured the dismissals of Tim Wood (6), Ben Gunn (0), Hamish Schumacher (0), Scott Woodman (0) and Scott Johnson (0), with four of his victims caught by wicket-keeper Brodie McRae.
Whittle - who first played cricket for the Power in the under-11s - finished with 5-22 off seven overs and the Taylor-Walsh Medal as the grand final's standout player.
Continuing with the Huntly-North Epsom theme, the season's No.1 bowling performance was delivered by star all-rounder Adam Ward against Eaglehawk at Canterbury Park in round six.
Ward produced the best bowling figures in the Huntly-North Epsom era that dates back to 2001-02 when he ripped through the Hawks' top-order on the way to 8-39 off 21 overs.
Ward took the first five wickets of the day inside his opening 37 deliveries, with his final haul of eight featuring one bowled and seven caught: four by Shehan De Silva at slip and three by wicket-keeper Brodie McRae.
Eaglehawk players must have nightmares when they hear the name Adam Ward.
Not only did Ward rout the Hawks with the ball back in December, but in their semi-final clash in March he also made 90 with the bat.
All-round games don't come much better than what Cameron Taylor produced for Strathdale-Maristians in round 13 against White Hills.
Needing an outright win to be any chance of playing finals, Taylor produced a performance with bat and ball that not only secured the Suns the maximum 10 points and a berth in their 14th-consecutive finals series, but also clinched his third BDCA Cricketer of the Year.
With the bat Taylor made scores of 104 n.o.and 23 n.o., while with the ball his leg-spin yielded 4-57 and 8-74.
In total - 127 runs without going out, plus a combined 12-131 off 40.2 overs as Taylor spent the entire 153 overs the game lasted out on the Bell Oval field.
According to BDCA historian Darren Rodda, Taylor's 12 wickets and century in the same game has only been surpassed by Bendigo United's Leon Grose, who made a ton (114) and took 13 wickets (7-6 and 6-24) v California Gully in 1977-78.
Bendigo United's Jake Klemm etched his name into the BDCA history books by scoring the competition's 16th double century.
In just his third innings for his new club after crossing from rivals Kangaroo Flat, Klemm cracked 201 against White Hills at Harry Trott Oval in round three.
Yet his batting heroics came in a losing cause - the Redbacks bowled out for 343 in reply to White Hills' 9-360.
Klemm's 201 came off 216 balls with 12 boundaries, while he must have had his heart in his mouth on 199 at the non-striker's end when No.11 Billy Quirk had a caught behind chance spilt.
Huntly-North Epsom proved to be the Grinch for Strathfieldsaye in round eight.
Just two days before Christmas the Power made an absolute mess of Strathfieldsaye, bowling the Jets out for a paltry 39 in their one-day match at Strauch Reserve.
Defending 229, the Power needed just 24.2 overs to rout the Jets, who lost wickets with the score at 7, 7, 7, 11, 16, 29, 35, 35, 37 and 39 - the lowest score in Strathfieldsaye's history after captain Ben Devanny won the toss and sent the Power in.
Only Luke Jones (13 n.o.) reached double figures for the Jets in their 146-ball debacle, while the Power's 10 wickets were shared between the trio of Brett Elvey (4-3), Mitch Whittle (3-16) and Adam Ward (3-17).
The season's closest game was played out at the QEO in round 12 when Strathdale-Maristians and Strathfieldsaye couldn't be split.
The Suns scrounged their way from 9-91 to 151 on day one thanks to a 60-run partnership for the last wicket between Ryan Haythorpe (44) and Darcy Bakes (11 n.o.).
It was a total for the Suns that looked like being short of the mark when the Jets were 8-150 the following week and needing just two runs to win with two wickets in hand.
Yet the Suns - as they have done so often over the past decade - dug deep against the odds and claimed the last two wickets for one run: a gallant Chathura Damith (76) caught James Vlaeminck, bowled Jacob DeAraugo; and Jed Rodda (3), caught Daniel Clohesy, bowled Cameron Taylor.
While there was plenty made of the Suns' outright win over White Hills in the last round to make the finals, they wouldn't have finished in the top four without snaffling three points out of the tie with the Jets.
TWEAKERS PUT BATSMEN IN A SPIN
There was a common theme among the competition's leading wicket-takers - the dominance of spin bowlers.
Five of the competition's top seven bowlers at the end of the season, including finals, were spinners - Strathdale's Cameron Taylor (49 wickets), Eaglehawk's Russell Stockdale (34), Golden Square duo Ben Gunn (30) and Liam Smith (29) and Strathfieldsaye import Savith Priyan (28).
The only exceptions among the top seven were Huntly-North Epsom's Adam Ward (37) and Bendigo's Alex Pearson (28).
Statistically, Eaglehawk's Matt Fitt can now lay claim to being the greatest wicket-keeper in BDCA history.
Fitt set a new BDCA record for dismissals by a wicket-keeper on December 15 when he surpassed Geoff Findlay's benchmark of 400.
Fitt broke the record at the QEO when he stumped White Hills' Caleb Barras off the bowling of leg-spinner Russell Stockdale - the milestone marked with a short blowing of the QEO siren from the scorer's box by Ron Threlfall.
There was one goal in mind for Bendigo when it hit off its Melbourne Country Week division two campaign on February 18 - return to Provincial Group.
And it was mission accomplished in the most satisfying of ways, completing a 5-0 clean sweep that culminated in a 115-run grand final win over Ballarat.
The week was littered with highlights as Ryan Hartley (101 n.o.), Jack Neylon (100) and Jake Klemm (101) all made centuries, while in his Melbourne Country Week debut, Scott Trollope took 6-30 on day one against Goulburn Murray, which included a hat-trick.
Bendigo batted first all five games, making 8-214, 8-237, 8-260, 9-267 and 6-292.
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