Hillgrove proved unstoppable as they downed last year’s premiers Easts to secure Armidale District Cricket Association’s one day title on Sunday.
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The previous season’s trophy winners won the toss and elected to bat first but Hillgrove dominated from the opening ball when Adam Thurlow claimed the scalp of Easts’ opener Matt Jackson.
Thurlow didn’t wait too long to secure his second for the day, taking the wicket of fellow opener Alex Brown in his next over.
Aaron Whackett steadied the defending premiers with 35.
Power-hitter Todd Francis couldn’t provide a boost for the side with just six runs before middle-order batsman Nathan Porter came in and provided some spark.
Porter scored 52 with six boundaries. Dean Waters’ 13 brought their total up to 133.
Easts’ plan to claim early wickets started successfully when Josh Croft fell early in Hillgrove’s innings.
Captain Matt Baillie held his side together with 41 before middle-order batsman Brad King stepped up for the second time on the weekend.
King scored a century against City on Saturday and backed it up with 46 not out on Sunday to help his side reach Easts’ total with six overs to spare.
It was just a shame we got tied down and couldn't score runs freely and it cost us in the end but you can't take any credit away from Hillgrove, they bowled really well.
- Sam Uphill
Baillie said while King’s performance cemented the victory, it was the team’s bowling attack which impressed him the most.
"We just bowled to a plan and everything just fell into place for us,” he said.
"Even though we did drop two catches we were lucky enough to create enough chances to get a few wickets and restrict them.
"We didn't bowl them out but we managed to to keep them to 133 and we managed to chase them down.
"Kingy had a brilliant weekend with the bat, he got 100 on Saturday and then 46 not out Sunday.
"He really performed all weekend for us which was awesome and did what he had to do when we were chasing that total.”
Easts’ captain Sam Uphill echoed the thoughts of his counterpart and said Hillgrove’s bowlers didn’t allow his side to fall into a rhythm with the bat.
"We just didn't have enough runs on the board,” he said.
"It was just a shame we got tied down and couldn't score runs freely and it cost us in the end but you can't take any credit away from Hillgrove, they bowled really well.”