Armidale City UNE commenced their two-day first grade cricket season in formidable fashion against a 10-man Ex-Services.
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City were bolstered this season with a handful of new recruits who stood up in their opening match.
Batting first, City set to work early with skipper Kyle Taylor and Ash Clee opening the batting.
Clee was dismissed early on five by Servies’ Dan Hogan and Michael Allen followed after via the bowling of Brad Widders to have City at 2-34.
A first grade debutant in City’s Nick Farrar stepped up the crease following Allen’s departure and made an impact.
Farrar and Taylor combined to add another 35 runs before Taylor was dismissed on 42 by Hogan.
Josh Martin went on to score 31 before retiring.
Farrar finished on 29 not out along with Andy Sawyer on 17 not out to round out City’s innings of 3-141.
Taylor said they went into the encounter wary of how dangerous Servies could be with the ball in hand.
“It was a really good performance from us,” he said.
“We were talking about batting in partnerships in training and in the off season and the five that batted did really well in partnerships.
“Servies have a reasonable bowling attack and on the wet deck with John Elliot and Brad Widders we knew they could get wickets if we didn't respect them so it was really good from the fellas that scored runs.”
With the ball, City’s bowlers made an immediate impact with Simon Butler dismissing Ex-Services openers to leave them in disarray at 2-7.
Butler nabbed two more in quick succession before Farrar chimed to leave Servies scrambling at 5-41.
Nathan Street and Brad Widders stepped up for Servies to steady the innings but economical bowling by City ensured they were unable to chase down the required 142 runs.
Butler finished with 4-15 with Farrar, Clee and Allen also claiming scalps while Dylan Yeomans and Karl Triebe restricting the run rate.
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