PORT Macquarie Pirates broke through for their maiden win of the 2014/15 season on Saturday thanks to some good batting at Oxley Oval.
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Pirates were too good for last year's grand finalist Macquarie Hotel to the tune of 38 runs, with Peter Colver's 82 crucial in the victory.
Colver hit nine fours and three sixes to help the Pirates post 7-185 from their 40 overs. In reply, Macquarie was all out for 147.
Pirates were in trouble early as Brendan Badenoch and Michael Pelley combined to take Cameron Ashe's wicket. Ashe failed to trouble the scorers.
Garth Mangan made seven before Dylan Rumble had him caught by Sam Ward.
Colver steadied the ship as Jamie Carroll (26) went.
Ricky Arnell ran Colver out, but the Pirates' middle order batsman Kirk Lower hit 28 valuable runs.
He struck two sixes to give the score a boost.
Badenoch and Liam Coelho were the most successful of the Macquarie bowlers. Badenoch's eight overs yielded 2-25 while Coelho bowled four overs and took 2-28.
Chris Cole took the remaining Pirates wicket. Macquarie also lost an early wicket or two in the chase, with both openers out for ducks.
Nick Bartlett, who took four wickets for Pirates, was spot on in his first over, bowling Ethan Hyde. He removed Ward in his second over.
Bartlett finished with 4-29 from 6.4 overs.
Captain Ben Woodward said he'd never seen Bartlett bowling as fast.
"It's probably the quickest I've ever seen him bowl," he said.
"It was good bowling, considering the calibre of Macquarie's batsmen. They bat down to 11.
"And Nick knocked over the top order."
Woodward chimed in with three wickets, Luke Rogers two and Shane Williams one.
Williams took the wicket of Macca's most dangerous batsman on the day: Chris Cole.
Cole went for 32, while Arnell made 27 not out and Josh Hyde 25.
The looming inclusion of James Terrett in the line-up has Woodward and company excited. Terrett bowls a similar pace to Bartlett.
For now, Woodward was happy to see a complete performance.
"We combined the bowling of the first week with the batting of the second," he said.
n More cricket:?Wednesday