- RELATED STORY: Old Boys claim fourth Tamworth first grade title in a row
They say the small totals are always the most difficult.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
And in a grand final that is only magnified.
Little wonder then Old Boys skipper Ben Middlebrook was feeling a few nerves as his side pursued Souths total of 104 for a fourth successive Tamworth first grade premiership.
They made a typically brisk start, smacking 14 off the first three overs but then lost Simon Norvill, Jamie Mitchell and Tyson Rennie in the space of 11 runs.
“When we lost Norvill, Tyson and Jamie early there were definitely a few nerves in the camp. But Adam (Lole) batted well and Swainy (Mitch Swain) did a good job with him,” Middlebrook said.
They had to fight for every run for a while there as Souths bowled their way back into the game.
“That hour before tea they only allowed 12 runs or something and really turned the screws,” he said.
At 4-54 at tea off 32 the game was in the balance.
But it quickly swung Old Boys way.
“The first four overs after tea there we got about 20 runs,” Middlebrook said.
“That broke the shackles a little bit and the runs started to flow a bit easier.”
Swain and Lole took them through to within six runs of victory, when Swain was trapped in front by Troy Osborne for 18.
Lole was joined by his skipper to finish off the job and was unbeaten on 37 as they became the first club to win four consecutive titles since North Tamworth won six between 1929 and 1934.
Middlebrook said the weather probably worked in their favour with Souths having several interruptions to their innings, and was pretty happy with how they were placed after the first day with Souths 4-60.
They missed a couple of chances early on the second day but courtesy of Aaron Hazlewood (5-57) and Will Gell (4-29) wrapped Souths innings up pretty swiftly.
“Aaron was sensational again,” Middlebrook said.
“Will bowled really well today (Sunday). Yesterday he probably didn’t bowl his best.”
Souths skipper Tom Groth conceded the weather didn’t help them, but wasn’t taking anything away from Old Boys.
“They were still too good for us,” he said.
They certainly batted better than us and caught better than us.”
That said, it was Souths best batting effort for a few weeks, and in their most trying circumstances.
“Obviously it was very hard,” he said.
They got halfway through their innings and had to change their game plan completely after losing 15 overs on what they thought they were getting, but weren’t that far off the mark.
“We sort of thought 120 would be a good score and in hindsight it probably was,” Groth said.
They had defended less and as they have done all through the finals, their bowlers were superb. Tom O’Neill led the charge with 4-28 from 16.
Both skippers praised the work of the council to get the ground up.
“They did some really good work to get us a game,” Groth said.