Tough day for Hay cricketers

BY MICK CATTANACH

In an unprecedented day of representative cricket, Hay as the current holders of the O'Farrell Cup and the Creet Cup, took on both challenges on Sunday, Wagga and respectively.

It was a tough day for both teams but a great testament to the strength of Hay cricket that it could field competitive teams in both competitions.

The O'Farrell Cup team took on a very strong Wagga team and unfortunately lost the toss giving Wagga first opportunity to post a score.

This did not worry the Hay bowlers and fielders who as they did against Albury the week earlier, threw the first punch.

Rupert Lilburne, in his second over, got an opener caught at second slip and then removed the number three caught by his brother Digby.

The following over Jack Cattanach got the new batsman for a duck to see Wagga in all sorts of trouble at three for 13.

The Wagga bats then consolidated to get the score to 114 before the return of Rupert to the attack as he got a batsman caught behind.

The next over, Simon Bunyan got the Wagga skipper LBW to see Hay getting back on top at five for 115.

These wickets brought Wagga batsman Jack Harper to the crease. He looked aggressive straight away, looking to get on top of the Hay bowling.

Jack Cattanach picked up another Wagga batsman caught behind.

A couple of overs later Dean Aylett got his f irst wicket and then in his next over picked up another to see Wagga eight for 163.

The trouble for Hay was Jack Harper at the other end was scoring quickly and hitting balls cleanly.

At this point an evenly balanced contest quickly shifted.

Jack Harper got hold of the Hay bowlers putting on an additional 100 runs for the last two wickets as he hit 122 runs off only 62 balls.

He was eventually caught on the boundary off the bowling of Digby Lilburne with the Wagga total on 263.

An amazing innings, it essentially took the game away from Hay.

Hay struggled to rally with the bat and were under the pump from the first over where they lost opener Jensen Hargreaves without a run on the board.

Wickets fell in quick succession as the Wagga opening bowlers bowled a challenging length with enough movement to cause the Hay batsman trouble.

Jack Cattanach offered some resistance and combining with Dean Aylett they kept the Wagga attack at bay.

Unfortunately it was only brief and the Hay boys were dismissed with 62 runs on the board.

The week earlier everything had fallen into place for Hay as they won the toss and got the momentum of the match. On this occasion it was Wagga who won the toss and despite being under pressure early had in one excellent innings taken back the momentum of the match.

Hay was unable to wrestle it back.

Wagga 263 all out (R Lilburne 3/40, D Aylett 3/75, J Cattanach 2/38, D Lilburne 1/42, S Bunyan 1/63) defeated Hay 63 all out (J Cattanach 23, D Aylett 10 not out).

In the Creet Cup, the Ardlethan/Barellan team won the toss and batted very well to get the score to 66 in over 20.

Hay finally struck with Charlie Wythes trapping one of the openers LBW with his second ball.

From this point Charlie, bowling unchanged, brought the Hay team back into the game with an excellent spell.

Picking up the entire Ardlethan/Barellan middle order, he took five wickets with his nagging stump to stump bowling. Conrad McGinty doing the hard stuff, bowling into the wind, picked up the over opener.

He then got a couple of other wickets to see the opposition eight for 126 at the end of over 39.

Unfortunately, the tail wagged as Hay could not pick up those last two wickets and Ardlethan/Barellan managed to get their total to 155 at the close.

In response the Hay innings started disastrously slumping to five for 11 in over 11, against some good opening bowling from the Ardlethan/Barellan bowlers.

At this point the Hay batsman dug in, with Zach O'Neil and Will Simpson both grinding out runs and keeping the bowling at bay.

While Zach departed for seven, Ben Phillips then combined with Will to keep the scoring going as they gave the Hay boys a chance.

When Ben departed, Justin Brown then combined with Will who, doing the bulk of the scoring, kept things moving.

Unfortunately, a couple of quick wickets took any chance in the game away. Will was then well caught in the deep as the last man out.

The Hay team had gone down despite a gutsy batting performance by the bottom half of the batting line up, led by Will in his best innings in Hay.

Ardlethan/Barellan 9/155 (C Wythes 5/24, C McGinty 3/32, B Phillips 1/18) defeated Hay 84 all out (W Simpsons 32, B Phillips 17).

Please enjoy the gallery of images, taken by Margie McClelland for The Riverine Grazier.