Bathurst loses under 16s Challenge Shield opener against Orange

The home side, with the bigger share of under 16s representative experience in their side, knocked over Bathurst for 112 runs and had no troubles chasing down the total at Country Club Oval.

Orange opener Blake Weymouth hit an unbeaten 85 runs to guide his team home.

“Orange are always strong in this age group. We’ve got a lot of younger age guys this year. We seem to alternate between having the older players in the age group and this time it’s Orange who does,” Bathurst stand-in coach Wal Brien said.

“A number of our players got starts with the bat but there weren’t enough partnerships. There was a good partnership between Hamish Siegert and Cooper Brien.

“They got us going but we couldn’t continue on with it. Another 50 to 60 runs would have been excellent but it’s our first game and we can learn from it.”

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Siegert (34) produced a sturdy innings at opener but didn’t receive much in the way of support until Brien (36) arrived at the crease. The pair added 40 runs together.

Tom Lynch (17 not out) was the only other batsman to hit double figures.

Hugh Middleton was the pick of the Orange bowlers with 3-16 off 10 overs. Middleton then backed up with the bat to score 31 runs.

He and Weymouth came up just short of a century stand (84 runs).

Orange chased down the target with 16 overs to spare.

“I thought we bowled and fielded quite well but Orange’s batting was excellent,” Brien said.

“Ethan Muller got our two wickets and our bowling attack did really well for their first game. Because the local junior season hadn’t started it meant this was the first game for a lot of our team.”