Last summer centuries before Christmas were rare, only CYMS’ Jono Savill and Cavaliers’ Josh Doherty passed the triple figure mark in the opening half of the 2017-18 Orange District Cricket Association season.
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Just six or so weeks into this season that mark’s been eclipsed in a big way, it’s been more than tripled already this summer with seven players cracking tons so far, incredibly five of them came last weekend.
Blake Weymouth cracked an unbeaten ton for Orange City in the top grade while Gladstone’s Ben McAlpine, Cavaliers’ Stu Middleton, Orange City’s Jamie Stedman and CYMS’ Adam Smith all made hay while the sun shone on Saturday afternoon.
Between them the quartet piled on 587, and while Smith’s 104 was superb McAlpine (177), Middleton (160) and Stedman (146 not out) went even bigger.
McAlpine and Stedman’s huge knocks led their respective sides to easy third grade victories over Centrals and Cavaliers respectively, while Middleton and Smith’s digs came on the opening day of second grade’s fifth round.
McAlpine smashed Centrals’ attack to all corners of Jack Brabham 4, scoring almost 70 per cent of his side’s total of 264. Benny Easter helped out with 69 after being dropped first ball of the innings, before the red and blacks made 123 in reply.
Stedman’s unbeaten ton included 22 fours and one six and led the Warriors to 4-219 before Jack Radnedge (4-26) led the way with the ball, the Warriors restricting Cavaliers to 7-149.
After coming to the crease with his side struggling a bit at 3-37 Middleton made light work of Kinross’ young attack, plundering 20 fours and five sixes – 110 of his runs – on his way to 160 at Riawena Oval.
He had help in leading the maroons to 8-333 declared too.
After coming to the crease Middleton lost partners Cam Laird (7) and Lachlan Griffith (7), with the score at 5-71 he was joined by Al Harper.
The pair added 229 for the sixth wicket, with Harper finishing eight short of knocking up the weekend’s fifth lower grade ton, he was bowled for 92 by Sam Hope.
Kinross will resume on Saturday’s second day at 3-46, facing a monumental chase.
Smith’s ton came in a clash that very much hangs in the balance, he was the only CYMS bat to make more than 12 as the green and golds posted 159 against Orange City, Dylan Caughlan (4-45) making plenty of headway.
The Warriors will resume at 7-142 needing 18 for first innings points. Shaun Churchill (45) has top-scored so far, with Mick Evans (13 not out) and Caughlan (20 not out) the unbeaten bats.
Shehan Fernando (4-28) made sure life at the crease was tough for the City batters.
In Centenary Cup Kinross Blue (5-208) defeated CYMS (122) and Orange City (9-141) took down Kinross Super Kings (66).
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Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
