Norvill top-scored with 63 off 58 balls for Old Boys as the four-time defending premiers easily chased down Bective-East’s 5-210 to record their first win of the season in a one-dayer at Riverside 1 on Saturday.

Old Boys reached the target in the 34th over for the loss of two wickets.

Abel Carney (58 off 40 balls) and Adam Lole (53 off 79 balls) were both not out for Old Boys.

Norvill has scored 4564 runs in 145 games at an average of 33 and with a highest score of 159.

But he did not score a century last season and he is intent on removing that frustration in 2017-18.

The 30-year-old one-club player in Tamworth, who made his first-grade debut in his mid-teens, cannot remember another time when he went a season without scoring a century.

After opening the batting against Bective-East, he was well placed to post a ton before holing out to Dave Brannan in the deep.

He struck eight fours.

“I had a good run there for a while and the standard of bowling is quite good in town at the moment, so everyone’s on quite a level pegging,” he said.

“So hopefully I can break the drought from last year. I probably just didn’t capitalise on the opportunities that I got [last season]. I played some silly shots here and there.

“But I think you need a bit of luck to bat that long and I need to apply myself better and hopefully get it done. I probably threw it away today [Saturday] with another silly shot.”

Old Boys lost their first-round clash against South Tamworth, when they were unable to eclipse Souths’ 204 total – bowled out for 164 in the 37th over.

The next two rounds were washed out.

On Saturday, Coby Cornish and Adam Jones top scored for Bective-East with 82 not out and 65 as the Bulls posted a competitive total.

Old Boys’ wicket-takers were James Austin (1-36 off eight overs), Troy Sands (1-40 off six overs) and Md Ikbal Hossain (1-44 off seven overs).

The Bulls had two run outs – Toby Whale, who made 22, and Gerhard Labuschagne (14). 

The Bulls’ wicket-takers were Cooper Barnes (1-30 off five overs) and Brannan (1-32 off four overs).

Norvill said Old Boys spoke about their premiership streak before Saturday’s game and decided to put it out of their minds. “Hopefully we can build on that [this win] and everyone starts getting in form at the right end of the season,” he said.