NAMBUCCA Valley club cricket resumed for the New Year when Macksville Country Club played Nambucca Colts at Thistle Park.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Colts won the toss and chose to bat first, scoring 162, with Chris McDonald making 99 and Zac Baldwin 39. Best bowlers for Country Club were Nigel Peterson 4/14 and James Murphy 3/20.
In reply, Country Club made 7/165 to get the win. Best with the bat for Country Club were Daniel Budden 44, Rick Fry 42 not out and Chris Budden 31. Best bowlers for Colts were Ricky Welsh 4/40, Daniel Ledger 2/55 and Troy Grace 1/34.
Unfortunately, the other two local games resulted in forfeits due to lack of players. Nambucca Hotel won on forfeit against Macksville Ex-Services and Scotts Head won on forfeit against Bowraville.
In Premier League, Star Hotel made the trip north to hot and humid Fitzroy Oval to take on 4th placed Diggers.
The valley boys felt there was a big chance of getting their first win for the season as Diggers were rolled for only 47 the week before. And Star Hotel had been boosted with the return of NSW country representative Alec Baldwin.
Star won the toss on a hard and fast Fitzroy deck and Baldwin and the in-form Brodie Bartlett got off to a flier, putting on 180 for the opening wicket before Bartlett was dismissed for 82. Baldwin showed why he’s a country representative, notching up 105 not out. Josh Bartlett contributed with 29 as the Star made 2/245.
Going out to field, Star were confident of defending the mammoth total. Wil Thomas got Nambucca off to a perfect start, knocking over a Diggers opener for only six.
As the game went on Diggers began to build solid partnerships – Ty Adams made 51, James Bellamy 89 and Damon Rootes 64.
The Star bowlers couldn’t stop the flow of runs as Diggers chased down the total with three balls to spare.
Thomas was the pick of the bowlers with 1/41 while Bartlett got two and Baldwin and Hudson Brown finished with one each.
Meanwhile Nambucca Valley played Coffs Harbour in an over 40s match at Phillip Hughes Oval.
Coffs won the toss and sent Nambucca Valley in on a grassy wicket that had a few tricks up its sleeve early on, with Nambucca slumping to 4/26. The ship was righted when Jason ‘Bombo’ Ahearn 34 joined Lochy Bennett 40 at the crease as they put on a 60-run partnership. Peter Lee chipped in with 17 and Daniel ‘Pud’ Ledger compiled a solid 12 not out. Nambucca Valley were bowled out in the 33rd over for 130.
Coffs Harbour had a simliar tough start to be 3/23 before a partnership of 71 saw them in the box seat to chase down the total. A few wickets fell late in the innings but Coffs managed to pass the total in the 37th over with 2 wickets in hand.