First grade cricketers triumph at last

Last Saturday was a momentous occasion for Gunnedah cricket as the first grade team secured its breakthrough victory in the Tamworth District Cricket Association (TDCA) competition.

Gunnedah beat South Tamworth by a mere five runs at Wolseley Park, nine weeks after starting the season with a creditable three-wicket loss to North Tamworth at the same venue.

Gunnedah had since had a few hefty defeats as well as two washouts and a couple of heartbreaking losses, including a one-run loss to City United in a two-dayer last month and a last-ball loss to Bective East in a T20 contest less than 24 hours before the breakthrough win.

It appeared victory could slip through Gunnedah’s fingers again last Saturday as several catches were spilled, but South Tamworth’s batters lacked composure and ultimately threw their wickets away when the 122-run target was within reach.

Gunnedah captain Andy Mack said relief was obviously the emotion after the victory, as it was “third time lucky”.

“In the T20 it went down to the last ball and unfortunately (we) got pipped, and then obviously the two-dayer against the reigning champions (we) got pipped by a run,” he said.

“So whilst they were disappointing, they gave us the belief that one day it’ll turn, and today was the day so (I’m) very proud.”

Mack said he considered 120 was a minimum sort of total when batting first at Wolseley Park, and that he was confident without being overconfident.

“We had a pretty ordinary five-over or seven-over period when we did drop those catches,” he said.

“We went a little bit flat, and I sort of grabbed the boys in and gave them a bit of a spray, and that sort of perked us up a little bit.

“It can either go one of two ways. (It can) backfire and we do drop our heads completely, or we perk back up and get ourselves back in the game, which we did and credit to the boys, they responded in the perfect way.

“I couldn’t be more proud of that.

“(They) could quite easily roll over and say ‘woe is me’, and think you’re being chastised for making mistakes which we all make.

“At the end of the day, everyone jumped on board, and said ‘yeah let’s do it’.”

Mack said the players couldn’t get ahead of themselves, and that “one win doesn’t make a season”.

“We can’t just rest on this win and say ‘that was great, that was fantastic’ which it is,” he said.

“We’ll enjoy it for what it is, but next week’s another week.”