Sport
27 January, 2026
MDCA’s young guns star in Kirton Shield
A classy hundred from Axel Purcell of Carisbrook and a heroic hat-trick from Beaufort’s Benjamin Grant highlighted an exciting Kirton Shield campaign for the MDCA under 17 representative squad.
With dominant victories over the Grampians and Grenville, the MDCA just missed out on this Sunday’s Grand Final, ending group play in fourth with a 2-1 record.
Some of the MDCA’s best and brightest rising stars opened their campaign on Monday, January 19, with an away trip to last season’s runner-up Gisborne.
After winning the toss and electing to bat, 40s from opener Zac Bell and captain Joshua Mullavey-Clark set the foundations for the hosts to set a challenging target of 206.
Joshua Nalder was pivotal in preventing Gisborne from setting a gigantic total after being 1/96 from 20 overs. The Carisbrook product led with figures of 3/28 to help bowl the hosts out in the 46th over.
Left-arm seamer Thomas Grant and spinner Purcell also stood out, stunting Gisborne’s momentum at a critical juncture with two wickets each, including a stretch of three wickets in consecutive overs.
After starting their response on rocky terrain at 2/21, A grade regulars Brett Coon and Elliot Cullinan began to mount a fightback for the visitors with a 48-run partnership.
Laanecoorie Dunolly wicket-keeper Lachie Condie looked to maintain the newfound momentum alongside Coon after Cullinan was removed for 32.
However, Condie’s dismissal opened the door for Gisborne to take the last seven wickets for just 12 runs, bowling the MDCA for 104. Coon top-scored in the 102-run defeat with 33.
The MDCA strived to pick themselves up quickly with another away trip to Ararat on Tuesday to play a Grampians side led by Laanecoorie Dunolly A grade regular Will Chamings.
With the Grampians sending the visitors into bat first, the MDCA’s top four of Thomas Grant, Purcell, Cullinan and Coon all produced handy knocks.
Credit to the hosts, they ensured the quartet couldn’t capitalise on their fast starts and denied them game-changing scores, limiting the MDCA to 148.
With the match heavily in the balance, the opening bowling tandem of Thomas and Benjamin Grant sent a tidal wave down the Grampians top order, with the hosts 3/12 after 10 overs.
Chamings caused some concern for the MDCA with a stubborn 29, but the Grampians couldn’t recover from their top-order collapse thanks to three-wicket hauls from Coon and Cullinan, bowling their opponents for 81.
Tuesday’s 67-run triumph was just the appetiser for a memorable performance on Thursday when the MDCA hosted Grenville at Carisbrook Recreation Reserve.
In one of the best innings of his young and promising career, Purcell showed meticulous and calculated precision opening the first innings, showing a notable aggression to score immediately.
With 13 fours from just 108 balls, Purcell finished his sensational knock on 104 as the key contributor to a mammoth MDCA total.
Coon followed suit with a quickfire 79, while Hunter Kurzke and Condie produced handy contributions to help bring the hosts to 7/279 after their 50 overs.
While Purcell’s heroics were certainly scary for Grenville, Benjamin Grant provided no restbite with a cunning dissection of their lineup reminiscent of a horror slasher.
With an opening wicket in the third over, Benjamin Grant struck again in the fifth over before having his third victim with the first ball of the seventh over.
Just as Grenville believed they had escaped, the Beaufort speedster delivered his magnum opus, rampaging his way to a sensational hat-trick to complete the seventh over.
Benjamin Grant finished with eye-popping figures of 6/3 with four maidens from six overs, giving Grenville no way back.
Nalder, Nicolas Stares and Coon collected the remaining wickets as the MDCA ended their Kirton Shield with an exclamation win by 256 runs.
