Rugby Union beats Centrals to go two from two in Bonnor Cup

Zane Newham and Hugh Taylor both impressed as Rugby Union posted a six-wicket win over Centrals at Wade Park in the latest round of the Twenty20 competition.

For Newham, who only made his first grade debut last summer, it was with the ball. He stuck to his plans to finish with 1-19 off four overs.

In Taylor's case it was top scoring for Rugby with 30 in the successful chase.

Both earned praise from experienced Rugby player Sam Macpherson.

"Zane Newham he's come over from Centennials this year and he's just been really, really sensible with his bowling to a plan and listening to Peakers [Ryan Peacock]," he said.

"He was 1-19 off four which is pretty good for a 17-year-old.

"Hugh Taylor opened the batting, he's only 15, it was a good option in him and he top scored with 30.

"That was only his third or fourth game in first grade but he was really good. He had a lot of time, he wasn't shy of anything, he ran well between the wickets and he hit the ball pretty well as well."

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The efforts of Taylor and Newham against Centrals add to what has already been a good season for Rugby's emerging talents.

Flynn Taylor was a member of Western Zone's championship winning Country Colts side earlier this week, while he, Newham, and Kane Veney all represented the Central West Cricket Council colts.

Blayde Burke, who has played for the Central West under 15s, made his first grade debut in the Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket competition this month, as did Lewis Schoenmaker.

"In the Orange City two-day [BOIDC] game we had three first grade debutants and they were 17, 16 and 15 and they all did something really good," Macpherson said.

"That was Lewis Schoenmaker, Zane Newham and Blayde Burke, then we have Flynn and Hugh Taylor as well and Kayne Veney, so we've got six players in our first grade squad under 18.

"Flynn has played seven days of cricket this week, he bowled really well Friday night, just every day he gets older he gets better.

"We've just got a really good balance between young kids that want to do well and play first grade and they want to be first graders and then we have our senior blokes.

"It's really good to get phone calls from parents saying 'Thank you so much, my son is really enjoying playing with the boys and learning so much'."

As Macpherson points out, there's a nice balance in Rugby's first grade squad and it showed in Friday night's win over Centrals.

It was Macpherson himself who landed the first blow with the third ball of the opening over. He sent opener Damien Caughlan on his way for a duck.

Caughlan was one of four Centrals players to be dismissed without scoring.

"I actually opened the bowling with spin, so that was a bit different and I didn't know I was doing that until I was walking out," Macpherson revealed.

"It was just good, it was something different, most opening batsmen don't get to play a lot of spin, so it worked in our favour a little bit."

Macpherson (2-22) and fellow new ball bowler Brad Rayner (2-27), reduced Centrals to 3-16 and from there Rugby kept the pressure on.

A 38-run stand for the fourth wicket was the biggest partnership Centrals managed as Flynn Taylor and Newham did well when introduced into the attack, as well as another of Rugby's experienced core in Jameel Qureshi.

Qureshi finished with 3-12 and he was on a hat-trick at one stage after removing Nicholas Rasmussen and Daryl Kennewell via catches off his own bowling.

A 20 from Andrew Johnson was the best effort from a Centrals player as the Orange-based side finished at 9-99.

"We were on a hat-trick at one stage and took some early wickets, so they never really got a decent partnership going," Macpherson said.

In reply Macpherson (19) and Hugh Taylor put on a 28-run stand for the first wicket before the former departed in the sixth over after being stumped.

Taylor continued to bat well and Peacock added 18 before Oliver Newton (25 not out) and Lachlan Coad (four not out) saw Rugby home in the 19^th over.

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