Both sides making near-full use of their 50 overs on a tricky deck, no single player was able to break the chain as the wicket stuck up and played unpredictably. 

Lachie Coyte top-scored for the match with 33 for City, and four other batsmen made solid starts but none of Nathan Rosser (25), Shaun Churchill (29), Shaun Grenfell (22) or Darren Barrett (27) could go on. 

City skipper Ed Morrish said he was reasonably pleased with the game.

“It’s good to get a win after Christmas,” he said.

“Everyone got starts with the bat and we bowled really well, but I was pretty disappointed with the fielding, we put 4 or 5 down in slips which was very frustrating.”

The wicket was quite uneven, and Morrish said their end total of 8-202 was “a really good score on that pitch”.

“We batted well, we just lost wickets every now and again which didn’t help the flow of it. We would have liked to be 5 or 6 down instead of 8.” 

Gus Cummings bowled well for Kinross, taking 3-34 from his 10 overs, and the evergreen Stu Crisp took 2-40 from 10. 

Will Lueif (1-30), skipper Fletcher Rose (1-47) and debutant Ed Taylor (1-30) also chipped in. 

Kinross coach Andrew Litchfield, who also pulled on the whites to fill in, said Taylor in particular had impressed him.

“He’s one of four or five year nine boys who are up and coming fast bowlers,” he said.

Litchfield hinted their could be shades of the West Indies quartet coming to Orange. 

“If we can keep them all fit in two or three years they’ll be tough to handle.” 

However, he said City deserved the win and had simply played better.

“They batted well on a difficult deck, we had a lot of people get starts but couldn’t go on with it. We had seven or eight players who scored more than 10,” Litchfield said.

There were encouraging signs, as debutant Phoebe Litchfield made 21 and batted “really well” to stick around in difficult conditions. 

“Credit to the guys that did stay in and played shots, eventually there’d be a ball with your name on it that did something you weren’t expecting.”

Stu Crisp top-scored for Kinross with 31 and Litchfield said he batted particularly well, but he and Phoebe Litchfield were the only ones to really trouble the scorers after Kinross slumped to 3-32 and never got in the hunt.