Armidale District Cricket Association president Mike Porter said he was looking forward to next Saturday's semi-finals with all the teams capable of winning this year's competition.
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"Anything can happen in cricket," he said.
The top four teams in first grade are pretty equal in ability and strength
- Mike Porter
This year's last round (14) was played on Saturday at the Armidale Regional Sports Ground. It saw Guyra have the weekend off with a bye. City managed to score 216 runs in 62.4 overs to defeat Hillgrove, who fell short with 174 from 41.1 overs.
City set a decent target with good performances from most of its top order. N Farrah managed to knock up 46 runs the hard way, while K Taylor managed a few boundaries for his 53. B Pears managed 32 and J Martin scored 29. Best bowlers for City were M Laurie 4/62, M Schaefer 3/38 and S Skinner 2/33.
Top scorer for Hillgrove with the bat was M Baillie who knocked up a handy 90 not out, R Heagney chipped in with a very handy 32. Hillgrove's best bowlers were K Triebe 5/35 and A Skinner 4/58. K Taylor took two catches and A Rosser took one.
Ex Services took on Easts at Lambert Park in what may have turned out to be some good batting practice for Easts' T Francis who scored a double century. Easts won the toss and sent Ex Services in to bat where JR McDonald hit 24 runs as the highest scorer in a 42 over 80 run innings for Ex Services. Best bowlers for Easts were J Gwynne 3/18, T Francis 3/30, S Uphill 2/9 and B Burey 2/20.
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Easts' batting innings was all about T Francis who scored 205 runs on the day with C Moran scored 63, C Ashe 59 and I Ranger 54 all chipping in for an innings total of 499 runs and a convincing win.
"The top four teams in first grade are pretty equal in ability and strength," Porter said.
"These teams are pretty equal on their day and the forecast for next weekend is for a bit of rain, so ... "
