AFTER having the bye in the opening round and losing a close match to Stockinbingal in the second, Central Hotel are on the board with a solid win over Country Club at Clarke Oval.
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Country Club won the toss and elected to bat first, compiling 121 runs, and Central Hotel replied with 4/125.
Country Club got away to an ordinary start and soon crashed to be 3/16, losing the wickets of Luke Ismay for a duck, Luke Levett for 6 and Ryan Breese for 5.
Tom Crowder and skipper Phil Gay steadied the innings, Gay top scoring with 38 while Crowder made 24, the pair adding 50 runs for the fifth wicket.
Joe Crowder made a welcome return to Cootamundra cricket, slamming two sixes and a four in his knock of 22.
Country Club also saw the senior cricket debut of young Ted Hines, grandson of Cootamundra Cricket Club life member and patron Greg Hines.
Bowling for the Central, the honours were evenly shared as Jimmy Mitchell captured 3/22, Jason Cronin 2/22, Joseph Trinder 2/33, and Adam Twyford wrapped up the innings capturing 2/1 from eight deliveries.
Set the task of scoring just 122 runs for victory, Tom Grace and Aaron Cronin got their side away to a sound start with their partnership yielding 34 runs.
The innings of the match belonged to Jimmy Mitchell, the 2012/13 Cootamundra Herald Cricketer of the Year finishing with 53 not out as he guided his team to victory in the 28th over.
Mick Cronin was also happy with his brief innings, knocking a four to score the winning runs.
Country Club with consecutive losses will need to regroup as they travel Stockinbingal on Saturday, while Central Hotel will be looking for back-to-back wins as they take on the Family Hotel Blues at Albert Park.
COY: 3 Jimmy Mitchell, 2 Phil Gay and 1 Aaron Cronin