victories at the weekend, with an 11 run win over hot favourites, Parkes in the Grinsted Cup.

Cowra has not held the Grinsted Cup for three seasons and Parkes were on a 13 match winning streak leading up to the game.

That didn’t stop Michael Curtale and his men though, who turned up and played the game of their lives to beat Parkes on their own turf.

“We had a lot of belief before the game, we’re a young, inexperienced side but I still thought we were a big chance to knock them off,” Curtale said.

Batting first, five of Cowra’s batsman passed 20 runs, without any going on to post a big score.

Day on debut and McSpadden (both 33) dragged Cowra from 6/84, to 7/143.

Cowra battled through their 50 overs to post a target of 160 and give their bowlers something to bowl at.

“Pete Guthrie held us together at the top of the innings and Day was excellent on debut,” Curtale said.

Parkes’ chief destroyer, Dunford, claimed 6/32 off 16

overs, and continued his good form against Cowra.

“Dunford’s a wiley old bowler who always seems to take wickets against us.”

When it was Cowra’s turn to bowl, Curtale knew he had to throw something different at Parkes’ dashing batsman, who were looking for some fast bowling to attack early on.

“Parkes love the ball coming onto the bat, so I thought opening the bowling with Nathan Thorn would be different and give them some trouble,” Curtale said.

“He went onto take six valuable wickets and was easily our best player.”

Despite Thorn’s effort—which included an opening spell of 17 straight overs—Parkes looked set to chase down the target.

At 6/139, with only 21 runs to defend, Cowra held their nerve and knocked over the last four Parkes batsman for just ten runs, with Thorn returning to take the last two wickets.

“I knew one wicket would change the game dramatically, so we were all still positive,” Curtale said.

“We fought to the death today, and this is huge for Cowra cricket.

“Parkes beat us 90 per cent of the time, so it’s a big win, and hopefully we can keep this group of young blokes together and build on what we’ve achieved.”

Curtale said his young team were capable of winning against anyone, but didn’t plan on such a momentous win so soon.

“I thought it would take a few more games for us to gel and be competitive, there’s only two guys older then 25 in the team.”

Cowra defend the Grinsted Cup at Holman Oval against West Wyalong this Sunday.