By Geoff Newling
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ARMIDALE City and Easts both scored much needed wins in their Armidale first grade clashes on Saturday.
At Armidale Sportsground Easts beat Hillgrove by two runs while Armidale City had a 13-run win over Ex-Services at Lambert Park.
Steve Butler was the star of the City win, scoring 44 in their low score of 150 and then taking 5-25 as Servies fell for 137.
Cody Graham had given Servies a great start too, smashing a quickfire half century but when he was out for 55 the run chase fell apart.
“We were able to slow it up and when Cody holed out at deep mid wicket took a few more wickets,” Butler told The Leader.
“Karl (Triebe) bowled very well too. He took 4-55 from his 11.3 overs.
“We really needed that win, it got the monkey off our backs.
“We can take a lot out of that, bowling them out for 137 was pretty good, especially with Matt Morrow unavailable.”
While Butler top scored with 44 Matt Folpp also chipped in with a handy 27 at number eight.
Ex-services skipper Brad Widders was disappointed with the loss, but happy with the direction his side was heading in.
“We can take a lot of positives from that,” he said.
“We’ve been trying to change things around and we are coming along.”
Matt Hudson was outstanding with the ball again, claiming 3-25 off his 12 overs while DJ Yeomans also collected three scalps and Johnny Elliott also bowled well before Cody Graham exploded with his half ton.
At Armidale Sportsground Easts became outright competition leader with a rare and welcome win over Hillgrove Colts.
Batting first Easts made 9-198 after Dean Moore (65) and skipper Sam Uphill (56) put on 74 for the fourth wicket.
Todd Francis (27) had also made a good start at number four again before the side lost 6-37 to some accurate bowling from Ben Laurie (3-49) and Harrison King (2-30) as well as suffering a couple of run outs.
Hillgrove looked to be well on target too after openers Matt Baillie (68) and Matt Schaefer (38) gave the side an 83-run start. But the rest of the top order failed with Lochlan Elks 910), Scott Brennan (16) and Josh Croft (19) trying to pick up the pieces later on but eventually falling for 196.
Justin McKay’s six wicket haul was a highlight for East while Uphill and Sam Constance also nipped in with two apiece.
Uphill said victories over Hillgrove had been few and far between the past few seasons
“We needed that, it’s been a long while since we beat them,” Uphill said.
“We’re getting there. Justin bowled well. The wicket was very dry and a bit two-paced. “Justin got a lot of his movement through the air. It was pretty windy.”
Hillgrove skipper Brad King said a poor fielding effort didn’t help.
Matt Baillie and Matty Schaefer batted well, gave us a great start but Dawso, myself and Alex Brown lost our way. Lochie (Elks) and Scotty (Brennan) gave us a good chance and Harrison too but we fell short by a couple. If we had fielded a bit better it might have been different. Sam scored 56 and we dropped him when he was five.”
ARMIDALE TABLE: Easts 12, Hillgrove 9, Armidale City 6, Ex-Services 3.