A clinical display in the field set up a seventh Tom Locker Cup title in the past 20 years for Hamilton-Wickham on Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The unbeaten Newcastle district cricket leaders continued a stellar start to the season, beating Wests with six wickets and 7.5 overs to spare in the 40-overs-a-side final at Passmore Oval.
Three run outs and a disciplined bowling display from Hamwicks restricted Wests to 125 all out in 38.4 overs before opener Ben Balcomb guided the hosts to victory with 46 not out.
Jack Hartigan (22) and Tim Studdert (26) provided support for Balcomb but the second consecutive Cup title was founded on Hamwicks' effort in the field.
Sam Webber (2-22 off seven overs) and Kain Anderson (2-19 off eight) were the main wicket-takers but all six bowlers were economical.
Puru Gaur was the mainstay of the Wests innings with 52 in 89 balls but he had little support as the Rosellas lost wickets regularly.
"I thought we bowled and fielded well, as we have for the whole year so far, and that really set it up for a pretty comfortable chase in the end," Hamwicks skipper Matt Webber said.
"It was just good tight stuff. The pink ball doesn't do much after a couple of overs so we just tried to keep it tight and bowl to our strengths, one side of the wicket and make the batsmen do the hard work."
Webber said fielding was "something we've been working on a bit at training, because it wasn't that great last year".
The victory built on Hamwicks' outstanding record in the one-day competition.
"I think one-day cricket suits us, we've got a few all-rounders and we bat pretty deep," Webber said.
"We've got a few bowling options, which helps us out.
"On the back of our one-day form, we're doing OK, so we'll switch into two-day mode and that's a comp we'd really like to win, but we've got a couple of tough games before Christmas against Merewether and Uni, so we'll see where we are after that."
Adam Price, back from England because of family tragedies, was one of Hamwicks' quality bowling options on Sunday. He conceded 23 from seven overs late in the innings.
"He bowled really well and it was fantastic to have him back and play another couple games of cricket with him," Webber said.
Price's brother, Joey, was missing for Wests in the final.
"We were a bowler short and a batsman short," Wests captain James King said of Price's absence.
"He's probably the best all-rounder going around, but we still should have probably put in a better performance than we did.
"The steady flow of wickets hurt us in the end. Credit to them, they bowled really well. Pricey choked us, and the Webber boys. They set a field and bowled to it really well, and we didn't stick to our game plan very well.
"Our boys bowled well, I thought, but we probably gave a four-ball every over.
"It makes it easy to switch over to two-day stuff now with this sort of game. Hopefully we come up against them later on in the year."