Old Boys picked up where they left off last season at Dick Edwards Oval on Saturday, despite the best efforts of South Tamworth young gun Ryan Meppem.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Making his Tamworth debut the teenager struck 75 to lift Souths to a competitive 6-190 from their 40 overs.
Old Boys though always looked to have the run chase under control with Adam Lole and Simon Norvill churning off 132 runs for the first wicket inside 20 overs.
Meppem provided the breakthrough removing Norvill for 69, stand-in skipper Josh Crowe then picking up Lole (52) nine runs later.
But the damage had been done, and Abel Carney (34no) and Jamie Mitchell (11no) steered the three-times defending champions to 3-191 with five overs in hand.
“The boys batted really well. Adam and Simon really set the tone and Abel chipped in at the end, ” skipper Ben Middlebrook said.
He was “happy to get that first win” noting that they had good patches but that consistency wasn’t there yet.
He had sent Souths in, thinking there would be a bit in the wicket after all the wet weather in the lead-up.
There wasn’t as much as he had anticipated, but he still would have been pretty happy with the return at 4-96 after 25.
But Meppem and Mitchell Smith (33) dug in and guided Souths to 5-180.
Meppem was dismissed the final ball of the innings after cracking his fifth boundary to bring up his half-century only a few overs earlier.
“Ryan batted really well,” Middlebrook said.
He really controlled it well and anything loose, he pounced on.
“I thought our bowling and fielding wasn’t the best. We just consistently bowled that poor ball,” Middlebrook said.
Crowe was also impressed with his young charge.
He also chimed in with two wickets and “bowled very tight”, conceding only 13 runs from his eight overs.
“We just bowled way to many wides,” Crowe said.
“Our bowling was not disciplined enough. We gave them too many freebies.”
“A couple of dropped catches hurt us too.”
They dropped Norvill early, which cost them.
Crowe was pretty happy with 190 on the board, and thought that was definitely defendable, even with an understrength attack.
“We were missing two of our strike bowlers which does make it tough,” he said.
Angus McNeill was away while Troy Osborne was unavailable through suspension.
He thought along with Meppem, Tom O’Neill 0-32 bowled well.
Josh Smith (2-35) and Mitch Swain (2-34) were the pick of the Old Boys bowlers, Jaryn Stevens (1-42) and Syed Ali (0-16) also acquitting themselves well having their first bowls in first grade.
Old Boys then backed up on Sunday to beat Armidale by four wickets and progress through to the Country Plate second round.
