Old Boys battle South Tamworth for a place in two-day finals

Sitting at fourth on the ladder, they needed to leapfrog Tamworth City United in order to secure a finals berth - and this last two-day match of the season was their final sliver of hope to secure the points.

With that in mind, captain Ben Middlebrook and the rest of the side decided to take the attack to South Tamworth at Riverside 1 on Saturday.

Initially, it seemed as though that decision had paid off. Old Boys were closing in on 80 without loss, thanks to the opening stand between Middlebrook (47) and Lawson Shepherd (26).

Also read:

"At none for 80, we wanted to get over that 200 mark and go from there," Middlebrook said.

"We needed to be proactive yesterday, and we were in patches. But then Souths took the last 10 wickets for 100 runs."

Adam McGuirk (38) offered resistance from number three, but no other Old Boys batter reached 20 as the innings folded for 177, thanks to Carter McIlveen (3-65), Chris Skilton (3-44), and two wickets each from Luke Smith and Chris Oxford.

Old Boys had looked to put the pressure on Souths throughout and scored at more than four runs an over.

By comparison, Souths batted steadily and managed to frustrate their opponents.

"Souths showed a lot of ticker with the bat, and batted really well in their innings," Middlebrook said.

"They batted time and put the bad balls away."

By the close of play, Souths had reached 4-114, with Josh Austin (41) their top scorer so far and Oxford and Charlie Stone both 18 not out.

The match will be decided next weekend when Souths resume their pursuit of Old Boys' total. With six wickets remaining, they are in the box seat but Middlebrook knows a lot can happen with 64 runs still required.

"The game is still in the balance," he said.

"We've seen all year that if you get one or two wickets, you can get three or four. It's a matter of us turning up on Saturday and bowling really well to start."

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: