CRICKET: A century scored by Warriors wicket keeper Chris Don was not enough to see his side home against the Valleys at the weekend.

Batting first, Valleys got off to a good start through Scott Hardy (53) and Aaron Regan (24), combining for a 43 run opening stand before youngster Matthew Hansen (1/40) took the wicket of Regan.

Hardy led the attack with the Zane Smith (49) proving the perfect foil for Hardy - the pair putting on a 55-run partnership.

Before Shane Knight (1/29), Ben Dray (2/54) and Noel Waipepe (2/33) combined to make inroads into the Valleys' middle order.

David Vickers (20 not out) put on some late runs to see the Valleys finish with 191 for the loss of eight wickets.

In response the Warriors went on the attack from the get go.

Ben Dray and Chris Don put on a suburb 62 opening run stand. Dale Mengel (2/47) scored two quick wickets before Don hit Mengel out of the attack.

While Don was dispatching deliveries to all areas of the field he was quickly running out of batting partners.

Valleys wicket keeper Mike Hope may never wear the gloves again after another stellar bowling display saw him tear through the Warriors middle order to finish with the impressive figures of five wickets for 22 runs.

Hope has the season's most wickets after bowling in only two games with combined figures of 11/48.

Matthew Hansen (14) looked comfortable at the crease and it looked as though Don would bat out the entire innings.

He was eventually dismissed for 119 runs and the Warriors fell an amazing three runs short of the Valleys' total.

The Valleys and Warriors play again this week.

The winner of this game at the Kelsey Creek ground will play the Canecutters in the grand final after Easter.