Tamworth Sportspower powered their way to Northern Inland Bolters Gala Day Twenty20 honours at Gunnedah on Saturday night.
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The Tom Groth-skippered side produced a commanding display with bat and ball in the final to cruise to a seven-wicket win over Gunnedah and become the first side to engrave their name on the silverware.
The home side made a promising start with Andy Mack belting the first ball over the Kitchener Park changerooms as they piled on 12 runs in the opening over.
“We were a bit off in that first over, we missed our lines a bit and they got off to an absolute flyer,” Groth said.
After blasting an unbeaten 77 in their semi-final win over Armidale One, Mack was the batsman Tamworth knew they had to get out and did so in the next over courtesy of Harrison Kelly.
Jamie Mitchell (7) and Matt Brady (15) steadied things over the next couple of overs but the introduction of Troy Osborne sparked disaster for the home side, with the all-rounder promptly removing both in his first over.
In his next, he bowled Gunnedah skipper Mitch Swain as the home side’s innings dovetailed to 5-41.
It never really recovered with Troy Sands (15) the only other batsmen to reach double figures as they were bundled out for 67 in the 15th over.
Backing up Osborne (3-6), Kelly (1-5) and Michael Rixon (3-7) really tied the batsmen down in the middle overs.
“The spinners bowled really well,” Groth said.
“I think we just had a good plan, set some good fields and bowled to those fields.”
Kelly then dealt out similar punishment to Mack, smacking a four then six off the final two balls of the first over to get the Tamworth run chase off to a blistering start.
Matt Brady replied with a maiden the next over but Gunnedah’s reprieve was short-lived with Kelly (22) and Brad Smith (3) taking nine off the next over.
Brendan Rixon then came out, following Smith’s departure, and pummeled three successive fours off Brady’s second over to have Tamworth 1-38 after four overs.
“Brendan played some great shots and showed why he is probably the best batter here,” Groth said.
He was out for 24 the third ball of the ninth over after levelling up the scores with his fourth boundary, leaving it to brother Michael to hit the winning run.
