St Pat’s Old Boys’ debut Royal Hotel Cup campaign is picking up serious momentum after Wednesday’s win over Kinross, a victory that keeps the Bathurst side unbeaten and was inspired by another huge effort from teenage sensation Nic Broes.
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Broes’ unbeaten 55 saved the Saints in what ended up a comfortable first-up win over Centrals in October and he backed that up with another half-ton on Wednesday night, bashing out 64 to lead his side to a whopping 3-162.
He picked up 1-18 with the ball, snaring the crucial wicket of Kinross’ most-experienced player in Angus Cumming as the students succumbed for just 91 in reply, and produced a run out as well to complete a player-of-the-game performance.
“He batted really well, it’s a bit crazy seeing someone so young with that kind of talent and maturity,” St Pat’s Old Boys wicketkeeper-bat Adam Ryan, who usually skippers the side but offered Broes the opportunity on Wednesday, said.
“It was a pretty traditional sort of captain’s knock in a way. We just thought it’d be a good chance to let Broesy develop a bit more as a leader and have a crack at leading the side.
“He’s been getting some good scores and doing quite a bit around the club, and he did really well with it.”
Before the competition Ryan said his side would just “take it all as it comes” but now they’ve rocketed to the top of pool A – with a net run rate of 3.725 to boot – he admitted their focus has shifted somewhat.
“We’re probably ahead of where we thought we’d be already, which is a really positive,” he said.
“I mean, to use the age old saying we’ll take it one game at a time because we’ve got Orange City next and they’re unbeaten too, that’ll be a good test, but we’re certainly in it to have a crack and we want to go as far as we can.
“It’s funny really, I didn’t think we’d really suit the Twenty20 stuff as much but (including the Royal Hotel Cup and Bathurst District Cricket Association’s T20 tournament) we’ve won four games in a row and scored 160-plus in three of them.
“It’s exciting stuff, the boys have been playing some really good, smart cricket.”
It’s a bit crazy seeing someone so young with that kind of talent and maturity.
- St Pat's Old Boys' Adam Ryan on young gun Nic Broes
Broes and Ben Mitchell (36) kick-started St Pat’s Old Boys’ innings perfectly on Wednesday night, adding a quick-fire 76 for the first wicket, which the former then built on with Tanvir Singh (12).
They pushed their side’s tally up to 112 before the latter was bowled by Sam Ridley’s (1-22) first ball, which brought Ryan to the crease.
He added a hard-hitting and unbeaten 29, with Ben Parsons (10 not out) contributing a few valuable runs at the end after Broes was caught behind off Hugh McIntyre (1-29) in the 18th over.
Much like their first two games Kinross’ chase never really got started as the students lost wickets consistently, with Ridley (23 not out), Charlie Greer (15), Cumming (11) and Ben Ronald (10) the only bats to pass double figures.
Parsons (2-19), Matt Fearnley (2-21) and Singh (2-7) all picking up multiple scalps while Broes and Mitchell (1-10) took one each. Broes and Singh both picked up run outs, removing Ronald and Tom Madigan respectively.
While St Pat’s Old Boys face the also-unbeaten Orange City and then Lithgow in their final two games, Kinross’ campaign is over.
The students do have one more game remaining against Centrals on February 15, with three defeats from as many starts they’re no chance of featuring in the semi-finals.
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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.
