Braidwood captain Aaron Van Essen won the toss and elected to bat. This fell into line with the tactics of batting our overs and defending the total.

Mitchell Smithers and Pat Martin opened the batting and looked steady for the first couple of overs. However in the 4th over Mitchell was caught and Pat followed shortly after. Van Essen and Troy Harrison occupied the crease to drinks when the score was 2 for 83.

In the first over after drinks Aaron was caught in the deep and Troy Harrison got out as well. Will Richards scored 2 and Sam Harrison made 6. Michael Balderson got out for four and Pat Pryor was not out 17 with David Johnson was not out 1. Braidwood's final score was 6 for 143.

This was a good total and the tactic of occupying the crease for the full 35 overs paid off as Batlow contributed some 51 extras to our total. Then there was a short break for lunch.

The Batlow openers went out feeling confident they would get the runs not knowing what they were in for.

Aaron and Pat Martin kept them tied down until the 7th when Aaron got an LBW. Their first drop batsman came to the crease and did not stay there for long. Then a change in the bowling and Sam Harrison came on. Next over captain Aaron decided to keep himself on which was a match wining decision.

In his final over he took a double hat-trick (four wickets in four balls). This is a very rare happening in cricket and was even more impressive in the fact that all 4 batsmen were bowled.

Troy Harrison came into the attack and kept his end steady while less the experienced Luke Webb, Pat Pryor, James Gribble and Will Richards cleaned up Batlow's tail end for a final score of 73.

This was a great team effort from all13 boys in the squad and means they now play the winner of the Balranald/Coleambally match in the final. Should they win that encounter they will be off to Coonabarabran for the State finals in late November.

A big thank you to Tracey Harrison, Liz Lamb and David VanEssen for transporting the boys and to the ladies for a fine scoring performance.

Rob Martin