It wasn’t enough to get his Gunnedah under 16s side the win though with Tamworth Gold surviving a late wobble to get home by three wickets in their Northern Inland junior competition opening round clash.

The Gold also prevailed in the under 12 and under 14s fixtures, but there were some encouraging signs for the Gunnedah sides.

“They’ll improve,” under 12s co-coach Darrin Cameron said after his sides 50 run loss.

Chasing Tamworth’s 4-173 they mustered 9-123, Mitchell Herden top-scoring with 22 after openers Cley Durrant and Aidan King had put on 29 for the first wicket.

Cameron noted Adam Veli-Gold’s efforts with the ball claiming 1-3 from his two overs, but the whole team contributed, he said.

“They really did bowl well. It was just a matter of their batters were a bit better. They knew what balls to hit. We’d bowled a loose ball and they’d put it away,” he said.

They also dropped a couple of catches which hurt them a bit.

“Other than that the boys did the best they could,” Cameron said.

It is for a several of the players their first season of rep cricket and a learning curve. The most important thing though is they have fun, and they did.

“They had a ball actually getting out there and playing,” he said.

The Under 14s found it tough going with the bat and were bundled out for 65 in reply to Tamworth’s 7-208.

Jayden Winsor top-scored with 25 followed by Claire McGuirk and Lachlan Straney both with eight. 

A number of the side are stepping up from the under 12s last season, and several are new to rep cricket altogether and coach Bobby Price said they will get better. Not that he was disappointed with their performance.

“We put in a really good effort against a class act,” he said.

(Claire) McGuirk was one of the stars with the ball and was on a hat-trick. She finished with 2-30 while Alasdair Hewitt snared 3-24 and Winsor chipped in with 1-33.

The under 16s were undermanned and would have been in a lot of trouble if not for McGuirk’s brilliant knock.

Next door to where he scored 122 for Northern Inland at the start of the season, he made 110 and was the backbone of Gunnedah’s 162. He clubbed 14 fours in his 115-ball stay and was the last man to fall with Ashley White (14) the only other of the nine batsman to make double figures.

After starting out behind the stumps, McGuirk then switched to spin and later in the innings pace to complete a superb all round performance with 3-33. Oscar King also claimed 2-32.