In round eight of the Western Stores Cup stores saw all home teams take the cake. The host Albert (5/248) chased down an impressive total of 9/247 set by Wanderers.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Wanderers full of confidence coming of a win last start set a competitive total of 247 thanks to a maiden century in men's cricket by Bronson "The Fury" Barker (129) with good support from Aaron Clarke (62).
However a 197 run partnership for the fourth wicket between Damian Fairley (117) and C Larkings (84) lead Albert to a comfortable victory in the end with 6 over's to spare. Albert are becoming a force to be reckoned with at home this year and turning Royal Albert into a fortress.
At Warren, Gin Gin defeated Buddah on a green top wicket. Early tight bowling from Sam Prosser (0/12 off 8 over's) and the experience of Captain Dwayne Kent (4/7 off 3 over's) saw Gin Gin restrict Buddah to be all out for 80 in the 32nd over.
Buddah's top four batsmen all got starts but no one could go on with it. The Buddah bowlers started well with the ball with Henry Buttsworth (2/17 off 6) dismissing Dwayne Kent and Tim "pop" Jenkins early but Scott Quigley (40) got Gin Gins run chase back on track and ended up chasing Buddah's total 4 down in the 21st over.
The win sees Gin Gin go outright top while Buddah will need to bounce back to keep their finals hope alive this year.
TABLE AFTER ROUND EIGHT 1. Gin Gin (43) 2. Colts (41) 3. Warren (39) 4. Wanderers (30) 5. Backwater (28) 6. Buddah (27) 7. Albert (26)
At Dundas, Colts defeated Warren to leap frog them on the table to go into 2nd while Warren slip down to 3rd position. Colts batting first managed to reach 161 before being bowled out thanks to a well compiled 71 from Lachie Reid opening the bat. Ray Smith was once again the chief destroyer for Warren to finish with figures of 4/27 off 8 over's.
Warren's run chase never really got out of first gear thanks to Colts opening fast bowlers Alex Sambrook (1/5 off 6) and Jakob short (1/3 off 6) displaying an awesome spell of bowling to have Warren at 3/8 off 12 overs before earning a well earned rest. First change bowler Todd Porter 3/9 off 5 overs didn't let up with his little off breaks either.
Only D Melville (27 not out) showed any resistance for Warren, who were eventually bowled out for 49 in the 22nd over.
After rd 8 see's the table as: 1.Gin Gin (43pts) 2.Colts (41pts) 3. Warren (39pts) 4.Wanderers (30pts) 5.Backwater (28pts) 6.Buddah (27pts) 7.Albert (26pts)
With one more round before Christmas, round nine see's Buddah travel to Warren for a second week in a row to face Warren, Gin Gin host Wanderers in Trangie, Backwater V Albert at Dundas while Colts have the bye.
Narromine District team registered their first win this year after defeating Gilgandra on Sunday. Up against last year's Brewery Shield runner's up, the Narromine team showed real fight to defeat a very strong Gilgandra team.
Narromine won the toss and elected to bat first on a wicket that had a little bit in it for the bowlers. Coming off a century the day before, Bronson "the run scoring machine" opened the batting and continued his good form to top score for Narromine with 41 off 24 overs to lead the way for Narromine to bat their overs out.
Valuable support from Kale Bock (40), Henry Buttsworth (19), Brad Freeth (15) and Jakob Short (15) helped reach a total of 9/165 off 50overs. Gilgandra got off to an absolute flyer in reply with an opening stand of 54 from 11 overs from Pete Rothwell (16) and Tom Redden (42). However first change bowler Bart Goodman dismissed both openers before drinks to leave Gilgandra at 2/76 off 17 overs at drinks.
After drinks it was all Narromine, Bart Goodman took four more wickets to finish with figures 6/22 off 10 overs to be pick of the bowlers. Gilgandra was dismissed for 109 in the 31st over, meaning Gilgandra lost 8/33 off 14 overs after drinks. Tony Harding (1/30 off 10) toiled away while Strath Munro, Kale Bock and Lewis Goodman all took one wicket each.
The difference in this game was that the boys used all their overs batting and that showed at the end as the Gilgandra boys were tiring. The boys can be commended on their efforts as they never gave up and to show that after 3 loses in a row, shows the real team spirit at the moment. The boys will being looking to improve on their performance when they take on Nyngan in a 20/20 charity match for The Jane McGrath Foundation on Saturday 3rd January 2015 at Trangie.
I encourage everyone to get down to Allan Burns oval on Saturday 3rd January 2015 with two cricket matches being played with an U13s match between Trangie and Narromine to kick off the day at 9am followed by the main game at 12 noon. Following the cricket, there will be bowls at Trangie Bowling Club commencing from 5.30pm costing $10.00 per person. All money raised from the day will go towards The McGrath Foundation so come along to Trangie for a fabulous day out and to support a good cause.
All results from round 9 of Western Stores Cup and the Charity Cricket matches will be in next years paper while the Narromine News take a break for Christmas.
We would like to thank all the sponsors that have sponsored us for the Jane McGrath Foundation Charity Cricket. We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Narromine USMC Cricket Council.
-12th Man.