They didn’t quite fire with the bat but the Tamworth Blue under-14s showed their bowling superiority to account for their Tamworth Gold rivals in Sunday’s Tim Grosser Cup final.
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After posting 219, the Blue quickly asserted their authority with the ball to surge to a 133-run win over their younger Gold counterparts.
“It was a great way to finish,” coach Damian Henry said.
They only lost one game all season – to Armidale in the opening round – and played some “really good cricket” after Christmas.
Sunday followed what has been something of a successful script – runs on the board and then early wickets – although Henry would have liked a few more runs.
“We got off to a good start but lost wickets in clumps.
“We didn’t capitalise on our batting,” he said.
Jack Hamilton was the standout with a run-a-ball 59 and duly named the player of the grand final. Kilian Apen also made a valuable 38 and held the middle order together after Isabella Cameron had hit 27 at the top. of the order.
Deni Baker and Ben Livingstone both nabbed two wickets for the Gold as they became just the second side to bowl the Blue out.
Any confidence they carried over from that quickly dissipated as they found themselves 2-3, 4-16 then 7-43. Charlie Henderson (12no) and Sam Murphy (17) provided some brief resistance but two balls shy of 28 overs Sam Clark (2-1) picked up his second wicket to wrap the Gold innings up for 86.
Matt Holmes again struck early for the Blue and would have been a candidate for the player of the final for his 4-25. Cameron also chimed in with 2-7 to cap off a solid allround game.
Gold coach Craig Baker said it was a huge achievement for his side just to make the final.
“I told the team that they were all winners for 13s to beat every other 14s side,” he said.
“It was a great experience for them leading into next year. They’ve put themselves in a great position.”
He said they gave it their all out in the field, the fact that they bowled the Blue out a reflection on how strong their bowling was.
And having chased 200 runs in their previous two games, he thought 220 was definitely a gettable target.
“(But) Little Matty Holmes destroyed our chances early in the piece and it was hard to come back from losing early wickets,” he said.
