Round 10 of the 2023-24 BOIDC season will be remembered for Joey Coughlan's 250 not out and we'll all probably forget that he took 7 wickets for the match as well!
The story starts at Loco Oval on 27 January 2024 for day 1 of the City Colts v Orange CYMS match.
In Colts' first innings, Joey takes 5/5 off 12.5 overs combining with Mac Webster (5/45 off 11 overs) to restrict City Colts to 133. Only opener Ollie Shoemark (65) puts up any real resistance. Then with 27 overs left in the day's play, Joey smacks 137 not out, to take his team to a 71 run lead with 8 wickets in hand at stumps.
On day 2, Joey continues the onslaught, until his skipper finally calls him in when he reaches 250 off only 164 deliveries, CYMS declaring at 3-348 with plenty of time left in the day's play. Colts' batters put in a better showing in their 2nd dig, with contributions across the board including Henry Shoemark (43), Lochlan Shoemark (39 no) in only his 2nd match in the top grade and Pat Hill (36), finishing at 7/220. Joey also picked up a couple of wickets in the 2nd innings, as did Rory Daburger and Lachlan Wykes.
Meanwhile, just over the way at the Sportsground, 6th place Rugby Union were fighting to keep their season alive against a St Pats Old Boys side who still have their eye on a top 2 spot. Day 1, St Pats Old Boys skipper, Adam Ryan wins the toss and elects to field first. With some tight bowling from Saints, the Rugby Union innings never really gets going, wickets falling regularly until the Bulldogs are all out for 118 in the 55th over.
The Saints openers, Connor Slattery and Andrew Brown then look to preserve their wickets and take their team to stumps, which they were within a whisker of achieving until Seth Norris removed Brown on what ended up being the final ball of the day's play.
Top scorer Bailey Brien (35) came to the crease to start day 2, helping his side to pass their opponents total with still 7 wickets up their sleeve. However, Rugby Union didn't give up, pushing on to claim the remaining 7 wickets, dismissing Saints for 170 and with a 52 run lead. Flynn Taylor (3/28), Justin Stephenson (3/29) and Tait Borgstahl (2/20) were the pick of the Rugby bowlers. Rugby batted for a second time before both captains agreed to pull stumps at 2/59.
Cavaliers played host to Bathurst City at Wade Park in the final match from round 10. Cavaliers batted first, and with John Warrington (118) leading the way from the top of the order, Matt Corben making 64 and Cam Laird (38), Cavaliers declared their innings closed at 290 to give their bowlers 7 overs at the Bathurst City top order. That move paid dividends for the Orange team as they took 3 wickets to leave Redbacks 3/18 at stumps.
On day 2, the Cavaliers attack continued what they had started, with Redbacks quickly falling to 7/87, before Josh Knox put a bit of fight back in the Redback innings, with an innings of 60 not out, but that wasn't enough as they fell well short of their target at 178. Clint Moxon made 43 for Redbacks while Rory Kalnins was the pick of the Cavaliers bowlers with 4/41.
Matt Corben enforced the follow on, but Knox again proved difficult to remove, making 48 not out before captains agreed to call it a day with Bathurst City at 1/82.