By Matt Zell

Ash & Kieren Hazelton travelled to Tooraweenah on Saturday & punished the Mountain Men in a dominant display of batsmenship.

Winning the toss & batting, Town Services put on a batting masterclass lead by skipper Ash Hazelton, ably assisted by younger brother Kieren & the ever reliable Brandon Hammond.

Ash slaughtered the Biddon-Tooraweenah bowling attack to all parts of the ground to end up with 115, he put on 110 with Hammond for the opening partnership before Hammond was dismissed for a well compiled 45.

Jason Carter then came & went for 8. This bought Kieren to the crease & the brothers then combined for an 80 run partnership to put the home side to the sword.

Kieren ended up with 39 not out as Town amassed 214 off their allotted 40 overs. This was always going to be difficult to chase down & Biddon-Toora were never in the hunt, losing wickets at regular intervals to be dismissed for just 62.

Not to be outdone, eldest brother Adam Hazelton jagged 4/21 & was ably assisted by Jacob Wilson with 3/18 & Jaylen Ahsee who took 2/7.

Will Lambell (24) & Warrick Finlay (16) were the only batsmen to reach double figures for Biddon-Tooraweenah. This resulted in a mammoth 152 run win for the men in yellow.

In other results Baradine managed to secure a 52 run victory over Curban in a low scoring affair, 98 all out v’s 46. Paul Lenard top scored for Baradine with 46, Anthony Barry took 4/10 for Curban & Doug Kelly 3/10. James Falvey was the destroyer for Baradine taking 4/3, Alex Barnett picked up a couple & young Orlando Bunner took 1/0 off his only over.

Gidgee continued on their winning way with a dominant victory over USC Marthaguy @ Warren. The home side managed to compile 110 all out on the last ball of their innings with Doug Freeth (27) & James Glasson (21) top scoring.

Jarrod Page continued his good form with the ball taking 4/20, well supported by Aaron Page 2/11 & Peter Peters 1/13 off his 8 overs. Gidgee made light work of the chase, passing the total 4 down after 24.3 overs with Mark Stewart belting 73 which included 6 maximums.

In the final game of the round Breelong maintained their undefeated record with a 6 wicket victory over Coonabarabran at McGrane Oval.

Winning the toss & electing to bat, Coona couldn’t get a partnership of any substance & were all out for 82, Henry Johnson was the pick of the bowlers with 4/25 & was well supported by Alex Sutherland with 3/11 & John Alchin 2/23.

M Colantonio top scored with 26 & Nick Willoughby made a well compiled 20. Breelong managed to pass the total 4 wickets down with skipper Liam Zell 30 not out & Kel Anforth 13 not out the main run scorers.

This weekend sees the last of the round games before the teams are split into 2 pools & with 3 teams vying for 2 places in the top 5 it is sure to be an interesting week.

Curban play host to Eumungerie, Coonamble welcome Baradine, Breelong take on USC Marthaguy under lights at McGrane on Friday night & Biddon-Tooraweenah play Coonabarabran in a must win for both teams.

Our Bendigo Bank 1^st XI travel to Dubbo on Sunday to contest a Brewery Shield fixture in what also shapes as a must win for the Gilgandra team. With several rep players showing some proper form hopes will be high for a victory over our arch rivals.

Thank you for reading, good luck to all teams, have a great week & I look forward to providing you another update next week.

Unofficial points table after round 8:

Breelong 47

Gidgee 43

Town Services 40

Biddon Toora 33

Coonabarabran 33

USC Marthaguy 33

Baradine 31

Eumungerie 29

Curban 25