Tamworth Cricket Round 4: Jack Hatton claims 6-22 as Old Boys beat City United by six runs

In the space of just over 12 months, the teenage tearaway has gone from third grade to a career best 6-22 for first grade on Saturday that put them in the box seat against City United.

Taking the new ball with Troy Sands, Hatton tore through City's top order.

After starting with a wicket maiden, the 16-year old picked up three wickets in four balls in his second over to have City reeling at 4-5 chasing 153.

READ ALSO:

But in a similar story to their clash seven days earlier it almost slipped away for Old Boys as City rallied, first through Scott Brennan (37) and skipper Tait Jordan (18), and then Matt Holmes.

On nine when they lost their ninth wicket, Holmes gave them a real sniff with some brilliant batting. He drove Hayden Baker for four boundaries off one over at one stage as what looked impossible started to seem possible.

Ably supported by John Elliott, Holmes took City from 9-111 to 9-132 with five overs to go and then 9-145 with two remaining.

But with seven runs required for an unlikely victory, he holed to Old Boys skipper Mitch Swain - much to his relief - off Simon Norvill for a brave 35.

Hanging on for a five run win the week before, Hatton admitted it was a bit nerve-wracking at the end there.

"That was way closer than I thought," he said, adding that he thought under pressure they did well.

He has enjoyed a pretty whirlwind rise after only starting grade cricket last season.

Up until then he'd just been playing school cricket with Farrer.

But he was doing alright there, and good mate, and Old Boys spinner, Zac Craig had been "bugging" him "to play grade", so he thought he'd give it a crack.

After starting in third grade he quickly progressed to second grade and even got a taste of first grade, making his debut against West Tamworth in round seven.

"Old Boys have been really good helping me out with all my cricket and I've progressed a lot," Hatton said.

Saturday was his second game in first grade this season after being called up to fill in last week. Opening the bowling, which is a bit of new role for him this season, he took 2-21.

Taking a bit of confidence from that, he came out on Saturday and snared 4-2 in his first spell. Already his best haul for Old Boys, he then secured his first-ever five-for the last ball of his second spell before returning for his third with a wicket to give him six for the game and put him on a hat-trick.

"It's the best I've ever bowled," Hatton said.

"At the start the ball moved a lot, which was good and it was just about bowling in the right areas."

Hatton wasn't the only bowler to achieve the five-wicket milestone with Kilian Apen earlier taking a season's best 5-26, including a hat-trick, to pull Old Boys back after they were 2-92 at the half-way point.

The top four contributed the bulk of the runs with Norvill and Baker both hitting 26, Jaryd Stevens 19 and Dan Bryant 25.

Despite the loss, Jordan was proud of his sides effort and the way they kept fighting.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: