Gunnedah’s second grade cricketers began their Tamworth District Cricket Association (TDCA) campaign for 2025-26 on a bright note with a five-wicket win against South Tamworth at Kitchener Park last Saturday.
Five wickets to Braith Winsor and three to Jack Hayes helped bundle out the visitors for 111, before the home side overcame a few setbacks to pass the target with 69 balls to spare.
South Tamworth opener Jon Stone hammered five fours and two sixes in his 49 from 45 balls, but Logan Pike was the only other player from the visiting team to reach double figures.
Jaycob Price held a catch at square leg in the second over to bring about the first wicket, before Jayden Windsor held a catch at mid-wicket in the eighth over.
Braith Winsor bowled Dinesh Goyal before another catch to Price left South Tamworth 4-47.
Stone cleared the boundary in the 12th over before hitting the first two balls of the 14th over for six and four. Another attempted big hit from the first ball of the 15th over brought about his downfall, as Jack Hayes took a catch at deep mid-wicket.
South Tamworth slumped from 4-73 to 8-78, as Braith Winsor claimed 4-4 in 16 balls.
Chris Holliday held a catch at point, and the bowler required no assistance from teammates for the next two wickets as one victim was lbw before the next was bowled.
The tail-enders proved stubborn, with 12 runs added in eight overs for the ninth wicket before a final-wicket stand of 21 lasted nearly nine overs.
Gunnedah skipper Richard Avendano conceded just 11 runs in his eight overs before Josh Langdon finished the innings with his first delivery as he struck the top of the off-stump, leaving Pike unconquered on 23 from 57 balls.
Langdon was dismissed cheaply in the run chase, after Jayden Winsor opened the scoring with a boundary from the fourth ball of the innings.
Jayden Winsor hit another three fours and also cleared the boundary once, before Jem Barbara knocked his leg-stump back.
Shortly after the fall of the second wicket, Bailey Lennox opened his account with a flick to the mid-wicket boundary to take the total to 50.
Gunnedah stumbled from 2-63 to 4-66, before 10 runs in the following over were followed by a lull.
Hayes’s dismissal with the total on 88 was the final hiccup for Gunnedah, as Avendano batted carefully before Lennox finished the job in style.
Lennox flicked a four high over square leg, and two balls later produced the winning runs when he smashed a no-ball full-toss for six in a similar region.
Avendano said “everyone’s going to be rusty” in the first game of the season, while “everyone probably really bought into playing team cricket, and bowling outside off, and taking the singles and not throwing their wickets away”.
With Gunnedah’s bowlers conceding 15 runs in wides, Avendano said there were “a few too many sundries but we’ll work on that”.
“It’s always nice to get a win in the first game of the year,” he said.
“I think the effort was certainly good, and we can probably build on that and shake the rust out a bit more as the season goes.”
Avendano said the wicket was tricky at times, while “it’s not a hard ground to score 112 on”.
“The wicket was probably a bit slow and there was no real pace in it, so (we’d) work the singles (and) hit the bad balls,” he said.
“Pretty standard simple cricket really.”
This Saturday the second graders head to Riverside to contest Bective East which is coming off a 20-run win against City United.
Gunnedah 5-116 (Bailey Lennox 46 not out, Jayden Winsor 35) defeated South Tamworth 111 (Jon Stone 49, Logan Pike 23 not out; Braith Winsor 5-15; Jack Hayes 3-26) by 5 wickets.
