Cricket: Old Boys demolish Tamworth City United in T20 clash

Against North Tamworth in round six, they had the Redbacks 9-81 before the last wicket put on another 43 runs.

Then, in last week's game at Quirindi, Old Boys scythed through Souths to the tune of 5-16 - who then went on to make 141. And while chasing in the second innings, Old Boys collapsed from 1-84 to 6-97 and nearly lost.

So this week, against Tamworth City United, captain Ben Middlebrook gave his players a clear message: be merciless.

And, much to his delight, they were.

"Our last three games, we've shown in patches that we're a good team, and we're getting the results even though we're not finishing teams off," Middlebrook said.

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"Today, instead of taking the foot off the throat with our bowling, we really went at it and put in a complete performance."

City United won the toss and elected to bat on a surface which had already hosted nearly 40 overs and deteriorated quickly.

As it turned out, Old Boys' spin and medium pace-heavy bowling attack was perfectly suited to exploiting those conditions.

The top-of-the-table side lost three wickets in the the first three overs of the game, and only two batters made it into double figures as City collapsed for 62.

Matthew Bryant (3-12), Troy Sands (2-10), and Hayden Baker (2-17) were the chief architects of the demolition.

"It was great," Middlebrook said.

"We've shown in patches we're a good bowling side, but we just haven't been able to finish.

"Even though we had them 5-30, I was stressing to the boys that we had to keep going."

Ahead of the beginning of the second innings, Middlebrook urged his batters to try and chase down the runs in less than 10 overs to secure an extra bonus point.

It wasn't to be, as wickets fell consistently and scoring quickly was difficult, but Adam McGuirk (28 not out) and Jack Richards (14 not out) saw Old Boys home quickly enough to ensure a solitary bonus point.

The effort thrilled Middlebrook, who expects the team will only get better in the weeks to come.

"We've still got four blokes out today who are quality first-graders," he said.

"We've got a squad that I think can really give this competition a shake, we've just got to start getting it together. And today, with the ball and in the field, I thought we did."

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