TAMWORTH Gold couldn’t quite put the finishing touch on a perfect season as they registered their first loss in the Northern Inland Final at Riverside 2 against Inverell on Sunday in the U16s.
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It wasn’t the best day for the Tamworth Gold teams as Armidale defeated the U14s in Armidale to complete an unbeaten season, while it was third time lucky for the Moree U12s at home, beating Armidale to finally win the Northern Inland title after three years in the final.
Playing in the NI Under 16s, the Tamworth Gold Under 15s had been the form team of the season, even taking out the Walter Taylor Shield in Armidale with a great win over Penrith recently, although Inverell deserved to win on Sunday with a couple of great performances with both bat and ball.
Inverell won the toss, batted and posted 168 on the back of a hard-fought knock of 65 from Joe Smith.
Smith was supported by opener Mark Horneman (15) as well as Sam Newmarch (18) and Matt Campion (28) at first and second drop.
Tamworth got themselves back in the game by cleaning up the tail cheaply but the damage had already been done on the fast Riverside 2 outfield.
James McGowan was the best with the ball, with figures of 3-23 from his eight overs, Jack Hannaford and Jack Diebold taking two wickets each as well.
In reply, Tamworth were absolutely skittled by Tom Scoble who returned amazing figures of 5-6 from six overs as the hosts fell for just 86 in the 29th over.
Only Jye Patterson hit double figures at the top of the order as Tamworth found themselves at 8-48 after 21 overs.
A valiant 38-run ninth-wicket stand got the hosts’ hopes up as James McGowan and Blake Murphy hit 13 and 15 respectively, until Rory O’Neill took the two last wickets to take out the Northern Inland Championships.
Jaidon Tasker also took two wickets but it was Scoble’s day.
In Armidale, the U14s’ final had to be played on an artificial wicket after some overnight rain.
Armidale won the toss and went in to bat but, with the ball skidding on a bit, it was tough going as most batsmen made starts but none really went on with it, posting 8-141 after 50 overs.
Henry Smith was awarded man of the match after hitting 18 with the bat, taking two great catches early on as keeper and then whipping the gloves and pads off to roll the arm over and snaring 2-13 from five overs of leg spin as Tamworth lost consistent wickets to just fall short.
Armidale’s Henry Sindel top scored with 26, with Jackson Gwynne also hitting 18 and Nick Corderoy 16.
Conrad George was the best of the Tamworth bowlers with 2-13, while Joey Mead and Will Meyers also took two each.
In reply, Tamworth got off to a rough start, losing two wickets in the second over to have Kieran Dennis on a hat-trick.
Conrad George backed up his bowling with a 34 not out with the bat, almost getting Tamworth back in the match. Noah Pitt supported him with 25 but it wasn’t quite enough as they fell for 125.
It was just the second loss of the season for the Tamworth Gold, their other loss also to Armidale who deserved the title.
The Tamworth Junior Cricket presentation night will be held at Diggers on March 13.