North West recovered from a shaky start with the bat to post their first win of the State PSSA Boys Cricket Championships in Southern Sydney on Tuesday.
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After winning the toss against North Coast and electing to bat, things weren’t looking good for them at 3-8 after eight.
“We were in a little bit of trouble,” manager Peter Mead said.
Enter skipper Sam Johnson (Armidale City) and Zack Doring (Wee Waa). They put on 66 in a game changing partnership.
“That turned the game immensely,” Mead said.
The partnership, and the speed at which they scored, with Doring smacking seven boundaries in a quick-fire 45.
Johnson batted through to finish with 50 as North West made 159, which was Mead said, a great score on that ground.
He couldn’t speak highly enough of Johnson’s innings.
“It was a very mature captain’s knock. He was patient early and gave Zack the strike,” he said.
“When Zack got out he took the reins.”
George Powell (Burren Junction) also chipped in with “a good 17”.
“All our bowlers then really worked hard as a unit,” Mead said.
“There were some outstanding figures.”
None more so than Billy Youman, who didn’t concede a run off his 4.1 overs to finish with 1-0.
Williams topped the wickets with 3-9 off four and was well supported by Navida Geeganage (Tamworth Public) with 2-16, Johnson (1-5), Nick Mead (Tamworth South) with 1-25 and Dylan Gardner (Inverell Public) with 1-9 as they bowled North Coast out for 99.
The secondary water polo boys didn’t fare as well at their carnival at Picton, and will now likely have to rely on for and against to squeeze into the semi-finals after suffering a draw and a loss.
It was a frustrating day for manager Sharon Grellman watching them draw 7-all against Riverina and then put it to a Sydney East side that is shaping up as the team to beat.
They went down only 10-8 and showed what they are capable of.
“They weren’t fazed by how strong the other team were and didn’t let themselves get intimidated,” she said.
North West were first to score through Will Clinch (Farrer) and only trailed by one at both quarter and half-time. They fought back to level early in the third quarter but conceded two unanswered goals before scoring in the final 10 seconds to fall behind by two.
Clinch finished the game with three, with Isaac Moxon and Pat Hofman (Tamworth High) supporting with doubles.
Earlier against Riverina they “lost their way”.
“We didn’t play as a team and let it slip away,” Grellman said.
“We lost the ability to communicate with each other.”
“And we missed a lot of opportunities. We probably only converted 20 per cent.”
They were fortunate to snag a draw with Luke Buckley (Farrer) slotting the equaliser with 39 seconds on the clock.
Grellman said it says a lot about the integrity of the team the way they bounced back against Sydney East.
The draw has though left them with two critical games on Wednesday. They’ve got Sydney North, which “will be tricky”, and Sydney West.
“Hopefully we can put in a strong performance against Sydney West,” Grellman said.
“We have to. If we don’t, we won’t make the semi’s.”
