ARMIDALE City Cricket Club backed up their first-round victory over Barbarians with another convincing win in round two against Ex-Services.
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City won the toss and opened the batting.
City hoped to improve their start to the match after losing early wickets in the game against the Barbarians.
It wasn’t to be with the side losing early wickets until last week’s top scorer Peter Lye stepped up to the crease.
Lye scored 55 against Barbarians and backed up his first round performance with 42 against Servies.
He was supported by Harry Lye with 24.
Chris Brennan finished with the highest score on the team with 52 runs to his name before he was bowled out by John Elliot.
Elliot was the pick of the bowlers from Ex-Services and claimed seven wickets, a maiden and 29 runs against him.
Ex-Services stepped up to the crease but were no match for City’s bowling attack.
Dan Hogan was the pick of the bowlers and finished with figures of 5-24 next to his name.
Captain Karl Triebe again impressed with the ball in the 169-79 win.
After a nine-wicket haul against the Barbarians, Triebe picked up three wickets against Servies and bowled two maiden overs.
Club president Adam Sweeney grabbed two in the win as well.
Sweeney said his side’s bowling attack has been a standout in their two matches this season.
He hoped the batting will continue to improve and the team can be a real force in this season’s competition.
"We really need to pick up our batting,” he said.
"With our bowling attack at the moment we can defend any score so we are looking pretty good.
"We’ll definitely be competitive but only time will tell.”
It will be a big couple of weeks coming up for City who take on a strong Hillgrove side.
Hillgrove beat reigning premiers Easts in a grand final replay from last year.
Todd Francis played a relatively lone hand for Easts with 106 as they made 171.
Hillgrove chased those down in the 39th over with Mitch Moore hitting 58, Josh Croft 30 and Richard Heagney 29.
Sweeney said his side are looking forward to the challenge of facing one of the competition’s frontrunners.
"We have Hillgrove this weekend so it will be one of the biggest tests to see where we are at,” he said.
"It has been a toss-up between Hillgrove and Easts. We have Hillgrove this weekend and Easts the week after so I think that will be the biggest test to see where we are at for the season.”