Civeo survives Tatts scare to score its third win

Civeo Cricket Club’s first XI picked up its third win of the 2019-20 Narrabri District Cricket Association first grade season on Saturday when it downed Tatts for the second time in as many meetings.

However, the side was forced to do it the hard way.

Civeo skipper Lachlan Cameron won the toss and sent Tatts into bat in the game played at Collins Park and the defending champs made 136 runs in 44.3 overs before losing their final wicket.

At one stage Tatts was cruising at 0-78 after 21 overs and looked set to post a large score before a collapse derailed its innings.

The Civeo men eventually chased down the required total with just seven balls to spare in the innings after losing eight wickets.

Civeo’s two-wicket win saw it move to 23 points, even with Tatts at the top of the table.

Just one win separates first and last place after five rounds, with RSL and the Razorbacks close behind, both on 17 points.

At Collins Park on Saturday, Brendon Ward and Craig Gleeson opened the batting for Tatts and got the innings off to a positive start.

At the 15-over drinks break the score was 0-52 and the pair combined to add 26 more runs during the following six overs.

However, in the 22nd over Ward (28) was caught by Joel Hogan from the bowling of Sam Bullen.

Bullen then took the next wicket when he bowled Michael Hewett (6)in the 28th over which made the score 2-91.

That became 3-97 in the following over when Gleeson was caught by Hogan from the bowling of Jade Lees for a game-best 46 runs.

The batsmen continued to fall as Tatts could only add 39 more runs for the loss of its final seven wickets.

Only Jakeb Nipperess (18) could join Ward and Gleeson on double figures.

The pick of the bowlers for Civeo was Chris Sargent who took 4-10 from five overs, while Lees (3-29 from nine overs), Bullen (2-27 from nine overs) and Jock Small (1-17 from 4.3 overs) all got among the wickets.

Civeo’s run-chase suffered a significant blow early on when Jonty Schwager caught Nick Smart (10) from his own bowling during a wicket-maiden over to make the score 1-13 after four overs.

That left Nick Tomlinson at the crease with new batsman Tim Hayne and the pair put on a 27-run partnership to take Civeo to 40.

Then, playing his second game of first grade cricket, Sid Harvey struck.

The 14-year old dismissed Hayne (21) to make the score 2-40 before removing Tomlinson (8) to make it 3-43.

Both of those batsmen were caught by Josh Campbell and their wickets left Jordyn Mowle at the crease with Tim Shields.

Mowle scored 11 runs before he was run out by Harvey which made the score 4-56.

Campbell, who assisted Harvey’s two wickets, then got in on the action himself by taking four wickets to make the score 8-100.

His latter two wickets were significant ones as he bowled Civeo’s top scorer Lees (32) before trapping key man Sargent (2) in front.

Those wickets left Cameron, who batted at eight, at the crease with Small.

The pair combined for a 40-run final-wicket partnership to get their side home to the two-wicket win.

Cameron finished unbeaten on 27 runs and Small remained not out on 10 runs.

Civeo will return to Collins Park this Saturday when it takes on the Razorbacks in round six, while Tatts will look to return to the winners’ circle when it meets RSL at Leitch Oval.