Oscar King thrived with the captaincy responsibilities on Saturday, leading from the front with the bat for Court House as they accounted for Mornington.
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Captaining the side for the game, he top-scored with 66 as they posted 172. Dom Barnes also chipped in with 27 at the top of the order and Jye Hicks 38 as part of a 78 run fourth wicket stand with King.
"Oscar and Jye laid a pretty good platform for us, helped get us to a really competitive total," Court House president Sam Doubleday said.
"170 on Wolseley is going to win you nine games out of 10 really."
At one stage with the way that King and Hicks were batting he thought they were possibly on for 200. But Henry Johns put the brakes on that when he picked up King, Richard Avendano then carving through the Court House tail to finish with a game best 7-29.
King's innings wasn't really anything Doubleday hasn't seen before.
"He's always had it in him, he's always had that ability to score runs like that, he just finds ways to get out," he said.
"But on Saturday, he just waited for the bad ball and put it away and showed some maturity about his innings."
The first time he has ever captained them, Doubleday said from a club perspective it was pleasing to know that someone "as young as that" can "show that level of maturity with the 'c' next to his name".
Another positive was the way the bowlers stood up. They had a "limited bowling attack" but managed to still get the job done.
Braithen Winsor (two) and Jacob Price (one) were good upfront and really applied the pressure on Mornington with a few early wickets.
It was tough from there with Johns (51) the only batsmen to really give them any trouble, although Marcus Hayne (20) and he did have a good little partnership in the middle that threatened to get them back into it.
"They were scoring runs quite frequently," Doubleday said.
![Jye Hicks gave good support to King with the two putting on 78 for the fourth wicket. Picture Samantha Newsam Jye Hicks gave good support to King with the two putting on 78 for the fourth wicket. Picture Samantha Newsam](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/ingYyB85ps4jmG9t8mfsHP/4523381d-27c4-4bfd-b0d2-353ae54ba2a0.JPG/r0_61_2275_1340_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"By then the run rate was pretty high but they still kept the scoreboard ticking along and it may have only taken one or two bad overs from us and it would have put the game into their ball park."
It was he who provided the crucial breakthrough, bowling Hayne for the first of what was to be four wickets in three overs.
He also dismissed Johns, caught and bowled.
"I didn't really see it until the last minute, and just sort of grabbed at it and it stuck," Doubleday admitted of the catch.
![Tim Kelly was steady at the top of the order for Kookaburras top-scoring with 51. Picture Samantha Newsam Tim Kelly was steady at the top of the order for Kookaburras top-scoring with 51. Picture Samantha Newsam](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/ingYyB85ps4jmG9t8mfsHP/263b5d3c-ca31-43fa-a405-5abd664a6ee2.JPG/r0_89_2461_1584_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"Any other day it's probably an easy chance but I just didn't see it come off the bat."
Jonah Cameron then came on and struck with his first, and then third, ball to wrap up the Mornington innings for 117.
In the other game Tim Kelly's first half-century of the season wasn't enough for Kookaburras as Albion chased down their 7-158 with seven overs and three wickets in hand.
Kelly anchored the innings with 51, finding good support along the way from initially Chris Holliday (28) and then Paddy Paul (19).
Daniel Head (49) then did a similar job for Albion, who were in some early trouble at 4-30 in the 12th over.
Jono Crowe (21no) and Andrew Osmond (8no) fittingly saw them to victory after leading the way with the ball. Both finished with 3-24.