Josh Crowe hooks on his way to 62 for South Tamworth. He also captured two wickets in his side’s good win over West Tamworth. Photo: Grant Robertson. 131012GRC15
ANOTHER lacklustre batting performance from West Tamworth gave South Tamworth every opportunity in their NICU Tamworth first grade cricket clash at Scully Park on Saturday and the reigning premiers weren’t about to miss their chance.
Four West bats scored more than 20 but none topped 30 in a total of 142.
South will claim the credit for that with Angus McNeil (2-25) and Josh Crowe (2-20) proving an unlikely but successful opening duo.
A late spell from Guy Watts cleaned up the tail and he finished with 4-27.
“It was a good deck,” South skipper Richard Rowlings said.
“I don’t think you knew how good it was until both sides had batted on it.
“We bowled really well.
“We gave a few cheap ones away at the end but we took regular wickets and that stems the momentum a little bit.”
Those regular wickets showed up in West’s batting card which showed Matt Kent (20), captain Tim Kensell (25), Adam Penman (28) and James Dunn (25) all made starts but didn’t go on with it.
“The top four or five needed to score more runs,” Kensell said.
“In the first two games none of us have got a 50.
“That makes it difficult.
“You need 170 or 180.
“The top four has to score runs and give your bowlers something to bowl at.”
Crowe showed that he can open the batting as well as the bowling and did a good job too.
He belted the West bowling to all corners of the ground in a knock of 61 off only 46 balls and when Rory Dempsey went in and hit a quick 32 the game was all over.
South had the win and a bonus point.
“He looked good last week, Crowey,” Rowlings said.
“He started out slow but once he got going he played well.
“There was one over where he took the poor bloke apart.
“To get them four down and inside 30 overs is good.
“We didn’t intend to do it but we knew that if we were still in there after 30 overs we’d have the runs.
“Rory and Parko (Greg Parkinson), if they get a bad ball they’ll give it a thump, so they were handy too.”
Penman (2-24) was the only West bowler to take more than one wicket
Overall it was too small a total for the West bowlers to defend.
“We dropped some early chances and that cost us a fair few runs,” Kensell said.
“I thought we bowled alright but then Crowey creamed a few.
“We recovered a little bit and we had half a chance when Crowey got out.
“But it was a lack of discipline with the bowling at the end.”
It is a rebuilding time for West but the good news is that it has Matt and John Brady and Shaun Stevenson to add to its batting lineup.