Carter McIlveen named player of the Connolly Cup final after brilliant opening spell

In what was one of the teenager's best bowling performances he tore the much-vaunted Central North Colts top order apart to swing the game firmly in Gwydir's favour.

After picking up captain Harry Scowen with his third ball, he was on a hat-trick in his next over to have them reeling at 3-8.

It was exactly what the doctor ordered with the colts amassing some big scores off the back of the contributions of their top four.

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From there they were only able to manage 111, which Gwydir chased down with a wicket to spare to win the silverware for just the second time.

"We sort of knew that there was three or four really really good bats in the team and if we could knock them over early it would give us a pretty good shot at it," McIlveen said.

"We were able to do that and we just sort of kept going on from there."

He went on to finish with 4-37 and to no one's surprise was named man of the match

It continued what has been a bit of a breakout season for the 17-year-old.

Last season playing predominantly second grade for South Tamworth, he has pushed his way into the first grade side and, opening the bowling, has been consistently among the wickets.

"I've definitely come a long way in the last 12 months," McIlveen acknowledged.

Gwydir captain Tom Groth has been a first-hand witness to the Gunnedah teen's progression, playing with him at Souths.

"He's come along in leaps and bounds from last season," he said, adding that it's great to see him "starting to reap the rewards for the effort he's putting in".

McIlveen credits his improvement to a bit of a growth spurt more than anything he's specifically tweaked in his bowling.

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"I've just grown and got stronger and obviously versing better bats each week (playing first grade) you pick up a couple of things and you've sort of got to get better otherwise you won't do very well," he said.

The secret to Sunday was bowling full and straight.

"I just tried to get it full and straight and hitting the stumps," he said.

That three of his four wickets were lbw's suggest that he was able to do that.

He was also able to get "a little bit of swing."

He then almost got them home with the bat, falling with just three runs to get.

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"I felt okay out there but once we only had one wicket to go I got pretty nervous," McIlveen said.

"But Jelany (Chilia) did really well at the end and it was a great way to win (he hit a four for the win)."

The pressure was on when he went out to bat with Gwydir from seemingly cruising at 2-62 stumbling to 8-95 and the colts bowlers charging in with renewed purpose.

"I thought if I could just turn a couple of singles and get a couple runs here and there, we had plenty of time left," he said.

Not the time to be hasty, he and Jason Mack just steadily chipped away.

"We were saying to each other just try and be as patient as possible and take the ones and twos where they came and then we got a couple of good ones away," McIlveen said.

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