Armidale 1 remain unbeaten two days into the 2018 Walter Taylor Shield thanks to an all-round batting display that saw the side score a 193-run win over Hunter Valley on Wednesday.
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Coach Greg Johnson said the game went exactly to plan for Armidale 1.
“We had a plan to bat first, if we could, get 200-plus runs and put the pressure back onto the other team,” he said.
“It was fantastic. To have a plan, stick to it and have it come off is exactly what we wanted and the boys were extremely happy.”
Jordan King (19) and Oliver Schmude (36) kicked things off for Armidale 1 and the side never let up from there.
Nick Page (41) and Cotter Litchfield (29) were next to get a piece of the run-scoring pie before Benji Marshall produced the biggest knock of the match with 70 runs from 51 balls.
Ben Murphy (31*) and Ryan Simpson (7*) then saw Armidale 1 to a score of 5-259 after 50 overs at Lambert Park. Alex Lidbury (1-27) and Kye Dann (1-15) produced the best figures for Hunter Valley.
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Hayden Schumacher (19) and Jordan Wells (13) did their best with the bat for Hunter Valley but Armidale 1’s bowling attack was on the money. Page was the best of the lot with figures of 3-12.
When asked who stood out, one name came to Johnson’s mind immediately.
“Ollie Schmude,” Johnson said.
“The plan was to not lose any wickets for the first 20 overs and let the big hitters come in and that happened. Ollie opened and scored 36.
“Benji Marshall scored 70, too. The last 20 overs we just took them apart.”
Meanwhile, in a match that only produced 146 runs in total, it was Tamworth on the wrong side of the scorecard in the Walter Taylor Shield in Armidale.
Tamworth were sent in to field and Oscar Spinks (1-17) struck the opening blow before Joey Mead – who finished with the incredible figures of 3-2 from seven overs – reduced Lismore to 3-5.
Joshua Clarke (11), Joe Carlton (10) and Sam McLean (19) were Lismore’s best while Jessica Davidson (2-9) was a handful with the ball as Lismore made 83 – a score that proved much harder to chase than it looked.
Simon Pratt (5-11) spearheaded Lismore’s bowling attack as Joey Ryan (14) and Lachlan Wesierski (13) were the only Tamworth players able to move into double figures.
In the end Tamworth could only manage 63 runs to go down by 20.
Over at Bellevue Oval, Penrith beat Armidale 2 by seven wickets.
Armidale 2 started well as Henry Star (46) and Beau Heagney (37) put on a second-wicket stand of 85 runs.
However, it went downhill from there as Bailey Tebbutt bowled tidily and was the chief destroyer as he claimed 3-6 from five overs.
Running between the wickets also proved troublesome for Armidale 2 with three run outs in total as the side finished all out on 104.
Wickets were hard to come by for Armidale 2 as Penrith’s top order put in a fine performance.
Lachlan Morris crunched seven fours on his way to 42 and was backed up by Nathan Lees (17), Jed Prior (10), Tebbutt (14*) and Raymond Ball (15*).
The final match of the day was a day-nighter between Ballina and West Pennant Hills which was still in progress when this story was published.