Sport
5 December, 2025
Player collision sees game abandoned
A TERRIBLE collision between two Apollo Bay players led to the abandonment of the round seven Colac-South West premier division match at Frederick St on Saturday.
Wicketkeeper Tyler-James Neighbour ended up with a broken ankle and Asitha Samarawickrama concussion in a sickening clash as the two players both went for a skied ball.
“We were sitting side on to it, there was a collective hush as we could see it slowly unfold,” Bookaar captain Lachie Green said.
“Both guys just went 100 per cent at it and couldn’t hear anything with the combination of rain and wind at the time.”
Green praised umpire Kevin 'Bushy' Robertson for his handling of the situation.
“Bushy was brilliant, he could see the tight knit Apollo Bay team weren’t in a position to keep playing.
“He didn’t ask for his match payment and was just concerned for the wellbeing of the players and that everyone got home ok.”
At the time of the match abandonment, Bookaar, batting first, was 4/119 from 31.5 overs.
Earlier, the Pelicans had slumped to 3/16.
“It was our worst start since round one, though we still had plenty of batting in the shed.
“We back our boys in to play aggressively, if a shot doesn’t come off on the day so be it.”
Wilba Cheeseman walked out to bat with the score at 3/16 and was unbeaten on 53 from 74 balls when play was called off - his first half century at division one level.
“Wilba batted extremely well, he got us back to where we needed to be in the game.
“We’ve been working on him opening up his game and he actually played the role of the aggressor on Saturday.”
This week Bookaar will face Cobden in a big day/night game at Cobden in a double header, with the Bookaar and Cobden Blue women meeting earlier in the day.
“We had a lot of momentum going into the bye and last week’s interrupted game.
“We love forward to picking that momentum up on what should be a big day for both clubs.”
Bookaar’s division two match against Pomborneit was washed out without a ball bowled.
This week the division two Pelicans have the bye.
The under 16 game on Sunday was washed out, with the game being made up as a Twenty20 game last night.
On Sunday Bookaar’s under 16s will play Pomborneit at Pomborneit.
Monday night’s under 13 game was also washed out, this Monday Bookaar will host Camperdown.