Saturday’s match up with Ex-Services was their latest loss and, although they were missing four regular first grade players, stand-in skipper Brad King said it was more to do with a lack of commitment to regular training by a large number of the squad. 

“We didn't play very well in all honesty,” he said. 

“We didn't do many things right at all to be honest and it is probably a reflection on our lack of training. 

“It is not a matter of too many big heads or anything like that, it is just commitments and people being busy and not committing to the simple things. 

“We are addressing these issues and hopefully we can turn it around.”

King is hopeful they can commit and get their season back on track. 

“I am sure when it comes to the finals time, if we are around, everyone will make themselves available but it takes a whole team to get to those finals and it takes a whole team to commit,” he said.

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"But the finals are a long, long way away now and we aren't even thinking about finals, we are just thinking about winning our first game at the present point in time.”

The Hillgrove line-up consists some of Armidale’s best cricketers but talent is not earning them success. 

“The way it is going this year, Ex-Services at the beginning of the year you would have thought they were going to be the team that everyone was going to be but now we are the team everyone is going to beat, at the moment,” King said. 

King was adamant it wasn’t to do with a lack of camaraderie and enthusiasm, 

“No one is down in the dumps and going 'this is shit, we aren't playing anymore,' there's nothing like that,” he said. 

“We are still turning up and enjoying our cricket but we are just playing bad cricket.

“104 should never win a game of cricket. 

“We bowled 22 wides. 

“I spoke to them before we went out and said 'we have 104 runs on the board, we cannot give them any freebies, we cannot bowl wides. 

“And we bowled 22 of them.”