Rovers United Bruck A grade cricketers secured a clean sweep of the opening block of one-dayers with a solid 23-run victory over Wangaratta Magpies at the showgrounds on Saturday.

Batting first, the Hawks put up 9/210 from their 45 overs, before bowling the Magpies out for 188 in the 44th over.

Winning the toss and batting seemed like the wrong move early, as both openers Charith Perera (five from eight) and Ryan Collier (second ball duck) were back in the pavilion early.

After Tyler Nanson removed Josh O’Donohue for three, the Hawks were in trouble at 3/13.

Young gun Reid McNamara and old guard Jacob Schonafinger worked hard to mount a comeback, combining for a 64-run partnership before McNamara was stumped for a well-earned 37.

Matt Whitten kept the momentum rolling, knocking a handy 24 runs to bring the score into triple figures.

He would’ve continued on, but an ill-advised quick single saw him run out short of his ground, a direct hit at the non-strikers end from Jack Davies ending Whitten’s innings on 24, the Hawks 5/154.

Schonafinger would be the constant in the innings, striking true while his partners fell at the other end and was the last wicket to fall, agonisingly close to the century, bowled by Dave Killen for a vital knock of 95 from 103 balls.

Brady Bartlett (8* off eight) and Adriano Speziale (2* off four) would see the Hawks to 210, a very strong result from their 45 overs.

With the runs on the board against their old rivals, the Hawks knew early wickets were the key, but the Magpies had other ideas.

The opening pair of Cooper Matheson (48 from 35) and Tyler Nanson (33 from 37) put on 89 runs for the first wicket, and at a rapid rate too.

But almost as quickly as they made the runs, the wheels started to fall off.

After a delivery pinballed off the keeper’s pads onto the stumps, stumping Matheson, the Magpies lost 5/6 in the space of just four overs, and were teetering at 5/95 thanks to the bowling of Brady Bartlett and Ryan Barnes.

Zach Wallace (44 off 80) and Jarryd Wallace (22 off 46) would work hard to keep their side in the hunt, but Rovers’ defensive field cut off the boundaries and sucked the life from the innings.

Despite not fully fit, Bartlett was the damage dealer, finishing with 5/34, while Barnes’ 2/29 was impactful.

RUB skipper Jeremy Wilson said his team performed well in a high-pressure match, but there were always improvements to make.

“It was a really high-scoring game, and any time you can beat the arch-rival, you’re happy with it, and that was the case,” he said.

“Schona’s been batting really well this year, and so has Reidy, but the good thing about Schona is he puts the pressure back on the bowlers.

“Four an over is 180, and we through 180 would be par, so we were pretty happy, but I said to the boys at the break we couldn’t afford to go into our shells and rest on our laurels, because we know what Cooper and Tyler can do.

“We didn’t bowl very well early – I think myself, Schona and Will [Graham] would all admit we didn’t bowl well.

“They needed six an over and if we had an over where they only got four, we counted that as a win.

“We really dried up the boundaries, I reckon there would’ve only been four or five boundaries in the last 15 overs - we just limited the bad balls and boundary opportunities, and we were able to see it through.”

RUB head into the one-dayer hiatus with an unblemished 5-0 record.

The A grade competition will change to a month of T20 fixtures, before the one-day season resumes on 10 January.