Matt Everett achieved a rare feat and Western Zone teammate Ben Parsons enjoyed a debut to remember as NSW Country made a perfect start to the Australian Country Cricket Championships on Wednesday.
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Bathurst quick Parsons opened the bowling on his Bush Blues debut and took two wickets while wicketkeeper Everett took five catches behind the stumps in the 23-run win.
In the first Australian titles at Newcastle in three decades, NSW Country finished at 9/244 after 50 overs after batting first before bowling the young ACT outfit out for 221 with five balls remaining.
"We're one-up on three teams now, so that's exactly how you want to start," NSW skipper Nick Foster said of the win.
"It will be good to put our best foot forward tomorrow and hopefully go two from two. That would be the ideal start and then you're ahead of the game."
Foster finished the ACT off taking the final wicket and claimed two other key scalps in that of their leading run-scorer who he bowled for 51 and their second last batsman who he caught and bowled for 24. Jack Preddey was the best of NSW's bowlers, finishing 3/32 from 10 overs while Parsons bounced back from conceding 10 runs from his first over to take 2/24 from five overs.
Earlier, Bailey Abela continued his fine season by making 52 in a solid opening partnership with Ethan Debono.
Gilgandra gun and reigning NSW Country Cricketer of the Year Everett could only manage 2 from first drop while some late hitting from Callum Rainger (55 from 40 balls) helped the Bush Blues post a strong total.
NSW will take on Western Australia at Lynn Oval from 10am on Thursday.
Western Australia lost their first match, all out for 157 in response to Victoria's 249 (49.1 overs) at Waratah Oval. Queensland (6/220) ran down South Australia's 219 runs at No.1 Sportsground with four overs to spare.
