West Tamworth produced their best performance of the season in the field before surviving a late scare to start the new year on a winning note.
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In front of a big crowd at No.1 Oval as the two clubs joined forces to raise money for bushfire relief, after restricting Souths to 125, Wests looked to have the chase well in hand but a late flurry of wickets made for a tense finish.
"A couple of brain explosions brought them back into the game," captain Shaun Stevenson said.
He was one who was guilty of that as they went from 2-70 to 7-99.
But Brock Ridgewell and Stu Irwin got them over the line with a. over to spare and one wicket in hand, Irwin surviving a couple of lbw shouts.
Dave Mudaliar (28), Harrison Kelly (17) and Shawn Mepham (22) had got them off to a flyer. They were 1-43 after the power play (six overs).
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Stevenson said it was a great way to start the year off and is hoping it is a springboard to a better second half of the season.
"It was very pleasing to get the win," he said.
"The batting performance was a bit shaky, but the bowling, which is really what has let us down during the season, was really good."
"To restrict them to 125 was good."
"I thought 150 on that wicket would be a good total."
The wickets were shared around with Harrison Kelly taking three, and Ridgewell, Irwin, Mepham and Stevenson one apiece.
The bowlers were well backed up in the field. They did drop a couple of chances but generally their fielding was great.
"We've been working hard on that," Stevenson said.
"It was good to see some reward for that."
South's young guns stood up for them with the bat, Brock Morley top-scoring with 43 and Jack Hamilton hitting 26 at the top of the order.
Angus McNeill (3-20) and Umair Nasir (4-29) then bowled them back into the game.
