Macleay First XI manager Anthony Henry said Coffs Harbour played a batting game where his bowlers just couldn’t take the wickets. 

“Coffs Harbour batted first and they were fairly consistent through scoring where they had four to five players that scored double figures between 25 and 50,” Henry said.

“Rootes scored a very respectable innings of 68 and like the rest of the team they just batted really smart, which made it difficult for our bowlers.

“Our bowlers shared the wickets but the outstanding player for us was Blake Giddy with 3/18 of 10 overs.”

Henry said he’s not sure if it was the wet ball but what really lost the game for the side was poor bowling.

“We bowled 18 wides which did not help us,” Henry said.

“That’s three extra overs we had to bowl and 18 extra balls which gave them the chance of scoring extra runs.

“We should have had them for about 200 and it was just poor bowling from the boys which in the past had been fairly good but this time around it just wasn’t.

“However, Coffs Harbour just batted well.  They rotated the strike and picked up some quick singles and played the field.”

After making 7/234 off 50 overs, Coffs Harbour where on a roll and didn’t look back getting out the Macleay XI for 10/145 off 32 overs.

“Angus Crotty made 21 and Todd Giddy and Dan Baker made12 each.  Tim Smith made 50 n/o and got us to a respectable score but it was Angus Crotty who really steadied the boys making 21 off 25 overs.

“His steady playing meant that we could score at both ends but the wickets fell around him until Tim Smith which was really disappointing for him considering he played a great game.”