TAMWORTH veterans cricket publicity officer and dangerous first-change bowler David Head has praised the efforts of both Tamworth sides, Blue and Gold in a wrap-up after a strong showing at the State Over 60s Championships in Armidale last week.
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Tamworth Blue finished fifth in first division after a strong win over former Test spinner Bob (Dutchy) Holland’s Newcastle side following a win over Quirindi and narrow losses to Armidale-UNEX and Sydney in the round games.
Tamworth Gold had strong wins over Mid North Coast and Sydney 2 but suffered a heavy loss to the Western Wildfires, (when, unfortunately, they lost a couple of their better performers to the Blue team and were short of numbers) and a close loss to eventual Doug Crowell Plate winners UNEX-Armidale 2.
Some highlights of the Blues’ week were Bob Haling finishing with an average of 145 from three retirements and one run out on 34, just one short of the retirement score.
Chris Crowell had three retirements and a run out in his four innings with an average of 119.
Greg Kellett and Ian Kitching didn’t get averages after keeping their wickets intact all week and scoring plenty.
Tom Kellett had an average of 68 from his two innings, Terry Murphy had two retirements from his four innings while Albie Barwick also had one retirement from two innings.
Brian Heyman took the “Run-Out King” Award.
Heyman made the capital offence of running out his captain Chris Crowell against Sydney as well as getting run out himself twice.
Michael Morgan, Ian Kitching, Terry Murphy and Denby Budden all handed in solid bowling performances throughout the week.
Tamworth president Doug Crowell had a big week, playing for the Golds as well as filling in for Sydney 2 against the Golds.
The highlight of the week was when he was promoted to captain the Blues in their playoff against Newcastle (when his son Chris had slept in and was running late for the start).
Doug tossed the coin with former Australian leg spinner, Bob Holland.
The Tamworth vets’ next game will be a day-nighter against Quirindi next Friday at 4.30pm which will also be used as a social gathering to tell tall yarns about previous run and strike rates at the carnival and career.
The association is endeavouring to have a game like this every fortnight.
The NSW teams to contest the national titles in Victoria next month were named at the end of the carnival, with a few Tamworth and Quirindi players to pull on the sky blue.