Gwydir sneak home by a wicket to win second Connolly Cup

After breaking through for their maiden triumph in the 2019/2020 season, the Tom Groth-led side prevailed in a thriller against the Central North Colts at No.1 Oval to be crowned the 2022/23 champions.

It was a big effort from the Bingara-based side after being rocked by the news earlier in the morning that one of their team-mates had been killed in an accident overnight. He wasn't selected for the final but had played a few games throughout the season for them.

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Groth said post-match it was really tough, the emotion clear in his voice.

"I think when we came out this morning we were doing it for each other and the boys were pretty pumped," he said.

They really charged in with the ball and got the reward, dismissing the colts for 111 - their lowest score of the competition.

Man of the match Carter McIlveen set it up with a brilliant opening two overs that saw him remove the three danger men.

After picking up captain Harry Scowen for a duck third ball of the innings, he then dismissed Joe Hancock for one and Thomas Thorpe the next ball to have the colts reeling at 3-8.

Harry Lewington (26) led a brief recovery but they were never really allowed to build any momentum.

"They've been a really good side and we knew we had to play to the best we could and I think we bowled and fielded the best we've done all year," Groth said.

They then looked to be doing it pretty comfortably at 2-62 and with Groth and Souths team-mate Luke Smith at the crease. But after losing Smith for a top-scoring 31 just before lunch and then Groth (16) not long after the resumption, 3-70 quickly became 6-81 and then 8-95.

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Still needing 17 runs, it was a very nerve-racking half an hour or so for Groth and the Gwydir players watching on.

"To get so close, we sort of wanted to win then," he said.

"And we had the whole town waiting to see what was going on up here."

They got there in the end, Jelany Chilia bringing up the win with a sweetly struck boundary. Surviving a strong shout for lbw the ball before, the No.11 tossed his bat and raised his arms in triumph as the ball rocketed into the Kable Avenue fence.

Following up with a few fist pumps, it perfectly illustrated how much the win meant.

"It's unbelievable," Groth said of winning the trophy for the second time.

It was the second win for many of the side also involved in the 2020 triumph.

And while Chilia was the man of the moment at the end, it was Jason Mack (10no) and McIlveen that really kept them in the game.

Groth was full of praise for the application they showed. There were a lot of blocks and a lot of leaves.

Earlier McIlveen produced one of his best bowling performances.

"He bowled really well," Groth said.

"We just asked him to just pitch it up and swing it and that's what he did."

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He thought Chilia was also great for them.

"He might not have got the big wicket tally, but he just builds so much pressure in the middle order and just keeps things tight and other guys take wickets around him," he said.

For the colts it was the age old story of not enough runs.

"They (Gwydir) actually bowled pretty well, took a couple of wickets early and all the fellas that have been scoring runs missed out," coach Tom O'Neill said.

"I think we did alright to scrape to where we got to."

Jack Hatton (3), Jett Lee (2) and Thorpe (2) all took multiple wickets.

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