Nic Broes and Marty Jeffrey produced a double century opening stand at Riverside 5 on Tuesday as Western blasted their way to the biggest score so far, and their first win, of the Country Colts Championships.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Broes hammered 16 fours on his way to 113 and Jeffrey 12 in his 105, the pair setting Western’s innings alight with a 221 run partnership.
From there they amassed a daunting 5-308.
Louis Whitehouse (1-47), Max Calder (1-50) and Lleyton Callaway (1-46) shared the wicket spoils for Illawarra.
Pat Rees then made 58 at the top of the order before Calder (52) chalked up his second half-century for the carnival, but it was in vain with Western bowling them out for 217.
Brock Larance and Tom Atlee did the damage claiming four wickets apiece.
It was another tough day for Central North, the hosts going down to Central Coast by 97 runs.
Batting first Central Coast dug their way out of early trouble to post 254.
At 4-26 the home side were well and truly on top but an 85 run stand between opener Broc Hardy (41) and skipper Jack Hardy got the Central Coast innings back on track.
Jack Hardy and Callum Rainger exacerbated that with a 82 run partnership before Jeremy Smith had Hardy caught behind two runs shy of his century.
Smith finished with 2-19, while young gun Isaac Barry claimed 4-46 after Armidale’s Jackson Gwynne (2-47) had again struck early.
“Jackson bowling the best I’ve seen him bowl,” co-coach Dave Mudaliar said.
“He’s done well early.”
Mudaliar was pretty happy with the bowling performance and felt 250 was certainly gettable.
But again the batting fell short of where it should have been as they were restricted to 8-157.
“I think we got lost a little bit,” he said.
He spoke about playing the slow bowlers a lot better and being a bit more assertive at the crease.
Their reluctance to do that was, he felt, a hangover from the first day when they were skittled for just 105.
“We showed more application at the crease but we didn’t free ourselves completely from that mess,” Mudaliar said.
Will Fort was again the shining light with 58.
“I think his 50 on day one was harder fought, but right now he needs some support from the top order,” Mudaliar said.
“He needs someone to put their hand up to support him.”
Isaac Barry was the next best with 21, the youngster impressing Mudaliar.
“He’s ticking every box that a coach could want,” he said.
The 15-year-old will go away with the Bradman Cup side early in the new year.
“He’s a bloke that has come to the forefront of my estimation,” he said.
“I’ve seen him bat well up to this stage but he’s taken another step.”
“He’s an amazing player for his age.”
Mudaliar said there are players that are doing well but he needs players to want to join that group.
ACT Southern meanwhile overcame North Coastal in a final over thriller to join Central Coast on two wins.
Kaleb Phillips (64), Blake Nikitaras (48) and Nick Groenwegan (45) led the way as they made 8-248, and countered Austyn Nugent’s 5-48.
North Coastal had steady partnerships right the way through the chase but the runs just eluded them, finishing on 9-240.
In the other game Rupert Lilburne (3-19) and Scott Morris (3-16) led the charge as Riverina routed Newcastle for 78, Luke Hitchcock (35) the only batsmen to really show any resistance.
They then polished off the runs in 23.1 overs with Angus McLay hitting 22 and Josh Staines 24.
