Tamworth finished Sunday's Connolly Cup clash against Gunnedah two fielders down but allrounder Hayden Baker made up for the losses.
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The opener whacked 19 boundaries at No. 1 Oval on his way to 120 off 117 balls before claiming 4-36 from nine overs as Tamworth won by 92 runs.
As far as all-round performances go, Tamworth skipper Simon Norvill said "it doesn't get much better" than Baker's efforts on Sunday.
"He batted amazingly," Norvill said of Baker.
"He's wanted to have a chance up the order and he used it well today.
"He always bowls well and took a screamer of a caught and bowled."
Tamworth finished two men down thanks to injuries striking.
"We ended up losing one of our fielders [Neil Hatton] when he was batting - he hurt his leg - and then in the second, one of my bowlers [Jaryd Stevens] did his hamstring as well," Norvill said.
"It ended up being a pretty good effort to defend the total with only nine and half fielders."
It wasn't all smooth sailing, though.
First-up, Norvill and Baker combined at the top of the order for 86 runs before Norvill fell to Rhyce Kliendienst (2-58) for 44.
Bryant (23) and Stevens (30) were next best for Tamworth with the bat to help the home side to 8-260 from 50 overs while Braithen Winsor (2-12) was Gunnedah's only other dual wicket-taker.
With Gunnedah at the crease, the match was in the balance just after the halfway point.
Mitchell Swain and Gunnedah captain Blake Small combined for 70 runs with the score reading 3-134 after 27 overs.
However, Swain (60) fell in the following over and Small (49) was next to go to make the score 5-160.
Tamworth stayed in control from there to bowl Gunnedah out for 168.
"Swainy batted well and so did Smally," Norvill said.
"They put us under the pump there for a while. It was starting to get a bit tricky but once we got Swainy out, it all went our way after that."
Ben Jaffrey
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
