In a match worthy of a grand final, Sunday’s Armidale Cricket one day decider came down to the wire with Easts leaving it late to snatch the title from City.
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Easts sent their opponents in to bat first and it didn’t take long for them to make an impact with Jackson Gwynne removing Simon Stubbs in the first over.
Tyson Burey chimed in soon after to remove fellow opener Andy Sawyer for nine and the wickets kept falling for City as they were bowled out for 65 in 21 overs.
Gwynne finished with 2-10, Burey 1-9, while captain Sam Uphill landed 4-20 and Matt Jackson 2-21.
Chasing 66 for the win may not seem like a tough ask but Easts made it difficult for themselves with their scorecard from their top five reading 6, 0, 2, 0 and 7.
At 8-42 Easts were in trouble and it was one of their bowlers, in Gwynne, who helped them escape.
His knock of 21 not out, completed with a six with three balls to spare, pushed them to 9-69 to land the trophy.
“He [Gwynne] won us the game before to get us in there so it was only fitting he won us the game [on Sunday],” Uphill said.
“We did it the hard way as we have done all season.”
Uphill credited City’s bowling with troubling his side in their run chase.
“They bowled really well, Karl Triebe bowled really well. He bowled 10 straight and bowled really well to put us under pressure which allowed DJ Yeomans and those guys to bowl pretty well as well,” he said.
“It was tough and the scores probably don't reflect how good of a match it was but it was pretty good.
“The unsung hero would be Dean Waters who faced 60-odd balls, just batted around the middle and kept us going.”