NARRABRI West girls ran into early trouble, but the Tamworth Public boys made it all the way to final of yesterday’s State PSSA Cricket Knockout finals at Maitland.
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Unfortunately they couldn’t bring home the silverware with The Junction proving a class above in the final.
They were too strong with bat and ball and claimed an 81-run win.
Narrabri fared better in their second game edging out Dubbo South by six runs to finish third after going down to Harrington Park in their semi-final.
Tamworth Public were in contrast too good for Jasper Road in its semi, bowling them out for 39.
“We got a couple of early wickets,” TPS coach Barry Everingham said.
They needed to – Jasper Road’s top four were pretty handy.
“We managed to bowl some peaches at them,” Everingham said.
“Three of them played defensive shots and got bowled. The other was caught behind.”
Jack Diebold did the bulk of the damage and mopped up the innings.
He was even on a hat-trick at one stage.
“He came back on in the 15th over and got three wickets in one over to roll them,” Everingham said.
Nathan Watts also snared 2-3 and James Wallace, Lachie Barton and Brae Bursle a wicket each.
“It was a great fielding and bowling effort,” Everingham said.
TPS were then “one for not many” and struggling but one good over after two of the Jasper Road players had crashed into each other, got their chase on track.
They went on to get the runs in the 14th over two wickets down with AJ Pretorius unbeaten on 17.
The final against The Junction was a different story.
It’s the second time this year the two schools have met in a knockout final after sharing the rugby title honours earlier.
Yesterday the Newcastle school batted first and after being 1-45 at the half-way point went “berserk” in the second half.
They plastered the TSP bowlers to make 5-135.
“We didn’t bowl anywhere near as well as the semi-final,” Everingham said.
“We were a bit tired in the field.”
There were too many sundries, and The Junction batters burnt them.
They were then 2-for none and three “for not many”, and never recovered replying with 6-54.
“They had four medium pacers and they were all on the money,” Everingham said.
“They were too tight. We didn’t hit a boundary the whole innings.”
State rep Wilson McTaggart set the tone.
“He took 1-7 off five and the kids were lucky to get bat on ball,” he said.
Diebold was the top scorer with 17.
Wallace, Barton and Watts were the wicket-takers.
The other two wickets were run-outs.