Opener Chris Merchant made a well-crafted 89, his opening partner Matthew Jones made a quick-fire 31 including four fours and No.3 Daniel Agland made 54 with three sixes and a four as Paterson posted 6/219 from their 40 overs. 

Wickets fell quickly as Paterson’s lower order chased quick runs to finish off the good work at the top of the innings.

Dustin Blakemore was the pick of the SMR bowlers taking 2-32.

Paterson made early in-roads into the SMR innings with some fine fielding and excellent bowling to have them at 5/35.

Rigby Vane-Wood had a hand in three of the first four wickets, running out Blakemore and bowling opener Justin Heien and No.4 Steven Walters. He finished with 2-15.

Jones dismissed No.3 Steven Biddles on the way to claiming figures of 3-12.

Stan Leayr helped clean up the tail taking 2-2 off 1.4 overs.

Port Stephens made easy work of chasing down Bowthorne’s total of 103 at King Park 5.

Bowthorne made a good start with opener Daryl Johnston making 20, Anthony Kendell 24 and Brett Sara 11 but with the fall of Sarah, Kendell played a lone-hand as the next five batsman contributed just 12 between them, including six to Elliott Penglaze.

Jeremy Kirk was the chief wicket taker for the Pythons finishing with 3-17 off five overs. John Power (2-1) and Ethan Locock (2-12) picked up a brace each.

Port opener Jeffrey Young was a man on a mission scoring 61 not out as the Pythons chased the target down in 17 overs.

Young and opening partner and skipper Matt Rolston (36) shared an opening stand of 81.

Competition newcomers Rutherford Hotel got the points in a reduced-over game against Raworth Rabbitohs finishing on 2/94 from 23.4 overs after the Rabbitohs posted 9/180 from their 40 overs.

Raworth had  an even contribution of runs from the middle order led by Andrew Kelly who made 41 coming in at No.6.

Jordan Auld made 36 off 37 balls, Matthew Rickard made 25 off 28, Brendan Lloyd 19 off 20 after opener Colin Dennis gave them a solid start with 19.

Unfortunately, the bottom five contributed just 14 runs between them.

Troy Dunn (4-29) and Jackson Cassidy (4-45) shared the bowling honours with four wickets each.

Opener Drew Garland anchored Rutherford Hotel’s innings finishing unbeaten on 45. Stephen Kemsley made 19 and Ryan Taylor was unbeaten on 16.