Gwydir were given a lesson in batting on turf in Sunday’s Connolly Cup final.
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Playing in their first-ever final, the Bingara side was completely outplayed by Tamworth Blue as they completed an undefeated Northern Inland campaign with an eight wicket win.
The damage was done with the ball with Gwydir finding themselves in a similar predicament to what they’d had Armidale in in their semi-final, and only able to muster 104.
Not taking anything away from man of the match Tait Jordan (5-19) and his bowling cohorts, Gwydir skipper Luke Smith felt their inexperience playing on turf hurt them.
For many of them it was unfamiliar territory, and particularly early on they were probably guilty of playing at balls they should have left.
The result was a hole the visitors were never able to worm their way out of. At one stage they were 5-10.
“We had a good enough team to be in the contest,” Smith said.
“But we didn’t give ourselves a chance to be in the contest.”
“We probably needed a 200-run score.”
They fell well below that.
North Tamworth’s Kris Halloran showed his class with an unbeaten 61 but couldn’t find any support with Lachlan Butler (14) the only other batsmen to reach double figures.
Needing early wickets, Gwydir were celebrating in the first over after running out Blues young gun Jye Paterson.
But those celebrations were short-lived with joy hard to come by after that as Tom Fitzgerald (61no) and Dan Whale (22no) steered the Blues to victory.
Butler provided the only other breakthrough, the bowlers not hitting the mark like they had in their semi-final.
“Seb West rolled his ankle in the second over so was out of the attack,” Smith said.
“And a few of our back-up bowlers didn’t bowl that well.”
Still they will learn a lot from it. They’ve only been in the competition for a few years and have been improving every year.
Last season they were looking the team to beat, but as Smith commented after the win over Armidale, nerves got the better of them in the finals and they blew it.
“We made it this year, which shows we’re slowly getting better,” he said.
The Blues now go on to play Maitland at Scone on Sunday for the 2TMO Cup.
Skipper Chris Paterson was on Sunday afternoon trying to get a clearer picture about what his side might look like with the Tamworth 1st XI taking on Cessnock for the Coal Board Cup, and players potentially being involved in that.