The temperature reached 28 degrees, however with little shelter and no wind it certainly felt hotter. 

This was particularly true for the fielding sides, who were by and large put to the sword once the match balls lost their ability to swing and seam. 

Captain of the winning Goulburn side Jack Murdoch effused praise for his team’s performance, and in particular their batting. 

“The final was good. We had some games that went our way early on, and in the final, scoring [104], which we thought was a good score,” he said. 

“Yeah, like I’m the biggest hitter, so it’s always nice to have a team with me in it,” Murdoch said over raucous laughter from his teammates. 

“Josh Ryrie and Jesse Cao opened every game today, [and] I don’t think Josh Ryrie got out once. He got all 30’s which was handy having someone like that coming in early and just clearing the ropes for fun.” 

Ryrie’s form was one of the highlights of the day. He often retired less than halfway through the six-over innings, and was the catalyst for several overs which went for more than 20 runs. 

The Stags played the final against the second Goulburn team in the tournament: the Young Guns. 

In a match that began nearly an hour late in fast-fading sunlight, the Stags batted first and powered their way to 104, courtesy of another thunderous innings from Ryrie. 

The Young Guns were consistent in reply, and eventually worked their way to needing 28 off the final two overs, which was ahead of the required run rate at the start of the innings. 

However, a tidy penultimate over, which only cost three runs, left the Young Guns needing an unlikely 25 off the last over, of which they fell 11 runs short. 

It was a remarkable success for the Stags in their first Bowning Sevens tournament. 

‘Yeah, it’s good,” Murdoch said. “[This is the] first time we’ve come and done this.” 

“It’s good to have a win. [It was a] good day for everyone, hot day [too].”