A second consecutive long road trip for Mount Beauty ended in defeat to Eskdale on Saturday, a 106-run end result.

The Power conceded a mammoth first innings total of 266, and were unable to get close to the target score as early wickets all but ended their hopes of victory.

Choosing to field first, Mount Beauty created their first wicket-taking opportunity with the score on 37 to remove the dangerous Zac Barrenechea, with Ethan Brown (2/37) then taking his second with a ball any seamer would dream of delivering, just clipping the left-handed Matt Hill’s off stump.

Wickets were hard to come by in the middle overs as Eskdale’s batters reached and cleared the boundaries on their way to a 200-plus score.

Skipper Greg McLennan (3/39) successfully inserted himself into the attack to collect some lower-order scalps, but the damage had already been done by Liam Tobin (65) and Tom Gibbs (56*).

A difficult chase became close to impossible as Mount Beauty lost four top-order wickets before the score reached 30.

Nick Iaria (29) was the first to start the salvage mission, with assistance from Todd Jeanes (27), Mark Flay (24) and Shannon Carter (30), but it wasn’t enough as the Power were dismissed for 162 with five overs remaining.

McLennan praised the team’s efforts in their second last game for the season.

“Our bowling and fielding has probably been the best part of our game recently since we’ve had minimal opportunity to bat at training as we still have no nets,” McLennan explained.

“Ethan [Brown] started really well, getting two early wickets, but then we drifted a bit and offered up too many boundary balls.

“Eskdale have a number of imports who are all good bats and they took full advantage, so we tried to take the pace off the ball.

“267 was an unlikely target for us to chase down after losing early wickets, but we had some solid contributions though, with Nick Iaria batting sensibly and hitting bad balls.”

With finals cricket out of reach, Mount Beauty will be looking to cause some final-round chaos for their opponents, Dederang.

“We’re hosting our valley rivals next week in our last game so there will be plenty of pride on the line.”