Having lost seven of its ten matches prior to last weekend, with three draws, Crookwell had showed plenty of promise but struggled to put together a side of its strongest players on the same day. 

While Saturday’s team was arguably not Crookwell’s strongest, it was a day for the bowlers and the home side grabbed its opportunity to shine with both hands. 

Crookwell stalwart Stuart Parsons said that there were no demons in the wicket or in the conditions, and it was simply a case of the bowlers having their day. 

“The pitch was fine, the ground was good, no worries about that,” he said. “We could only blame our batting and pretty tight bowling from the other side.” 

Having won the toss and elected to bat first, Crookwell soon fell victim to the unrelenting lines and lengths of Gold captain Brad Smith, who took 4-26 from his nine overs and was the pick of Hibo’s bowlers. 

The home side were “a bit concerned” after their first innings effort of 106, Parsons said, but that was before Crookwell’s bowlers put on their strongest performance of the year. 

“It was the best bowling I’ve seen from the young guys, Parsons said. 

“We took a wicket first ball and they didn’t score a run until the fifth over.” 

It was particularly telling that four of Crookwell’s bowlers shared the spoils in the second innings, with Josh Paterson (3-19), Martyn Travers (2-18), Daniel Knight (2-12), and Samuel Jackson (3-11) all contributing evenly to eventually restrict Hibo Gold to 75. 

It was a hard-fought match, and Parsons said that Crookwell will gain a huge amount of confidence from its first victory. 

“We’ve had a few games that we could’ve and probably should’ve won, and it finally came together [on Saturday],” he said. 

“We felt pretty confident after the last match [against the Stags in the T20 tournament, in which over 300 runs were scored]. It clicked for us the other day, and we made it hard work for them.”

This weekend, Crookwell will look to continue its run of good form against the Workers Stags..