Gloucester Bushmen defeated by Taree Uniting in Manning T1 cricket

The Bushmen frittered away a promising start to be bowled out for 80 in 22.1 overs. United lost four wickets in the run chase.

"It was a tough day at the office,'' a despondent Gloucester captain Ryan Yates said.

"United played good cricket as always and we just had a bad day, nothing really went right for us.''

United won the toss and elected to bowl. This paid immediate dividends when opener Johny Cornelius was dismissed without scoring. However, Landon Blissett and Aaren Hagenbach both made promising starts with Blissett hitting three boundaries in his 20, Hagenbach made a more composed 23.

Tyler Abbott claimed Blissett, his twin brother, Tash snaring Hagenbach and it was all downhill from there for the Bushmen.

"No one else scored runs, unfortunately,'' Yates said.

Yates was one of four batters who failed to worry the scorers. Sam Collie was the only other batter to make double figures. He scored 10.

"There's no excuses from us, we just didn't perform,'' Yates said.

"That happens - it's part of the game, everyone has a bad week.''

Josh Startin's effort with the ball was one of the few positives to come out of the clash for the Bushmen. He bowled two overs and finished with 2/2, although United had the game well in hand by then.

"He played cricket here a few years ago so it was good to get him back,'' Yates said.

"Josh bowls left arm medium and it's handy to have a left hander floating around with the ball.''

However, Yates said his side's inability to score runs is a major concern.

"It doesn't look too pretty in the scorebook,'' he said.

"You won't beat a side of United's quality by only scoring 80.''

Gloucester plays fellow strugglers Great Lakes at Tuncurry on Saturday before meeting Wingham in the last encounter before the Christmas break.

"Hopefully we can get a couple of decent results from those games,'' Yates said.