Essery, who was not in the best of health, batted the entire Wingham innings to remain 136 not out to lead his team to 5/327 in reply to West 4/451. As Wingham were not dismissed at the completion of the allotted 75 overs, the match was drawn, notwithstanding being 124 runs shy of Wests’ huge tally.

Essery had a plan which he stuck to throughout his knock, with the focus being to occupy the crease as long as possible to negate any chance of a loss.

In the absence of both Josh Davis and Ben Scowen, Essery opened the innings with Wayne Smoothy and the veterans restricted themselves to running just ones and twos in the stifling conditions. Generally anything that beat the fielder went to the boundary anyway.

The pair safely negotiated the opening attack with Smoothy first to reach 50 after surviving a dropped catch at slip off Naden Moriarty, when on 37. Essery soon followed suit as the partnership passed 100. When it reached 143 Smoothy went to punish a Brian Levi full toss, only to get a leading edge for a simple catch to gully. He hit 15 boundaries in his knock of 80.

Essery had 54 and was joined by Brock Hynes, but his run of outs continued and he was caught at cover off Kris Ball for 5.

Ryan Morris strode to the crease and the Dingo Creek neighbours carried the tally past 200. Essery’s score ballooned from 70 to 94 as he struck six boundaries, three in each Sean Carr over. Essery then forced himself to run the only three of his innings, before another well timed cover drive to the boundary brought up his ton. There was no David Warner jump, just both arms raising the bat above his head. It had been a long time coming with his only other first grade century recorded 20 seasons ago.    

Morris recorded his maiden half century with a clip over square leg before falling on 67, with 10 fours, having put on 142 for the third wicket with his skipper, a new club record at that venue. Essery had advanced his total to 126 and the score was 298 by then.

Mick Stinson (9) and Ryan Williams (0) both lost their wickets cheaply before Hayden Essery, fresh from his own 113 not out in an under 15s carnival in Newcastle during the week, played two spanking shots to the fence with his new bat to show the old man how it should be done. Father and son were together at the end of the day to celebrate Matt’s 136 not, passing 6000 club runs in the process.

Moriarty, although wicket-less, bowled well for the visitors, particularly his second spell, while Levi toiled away for 2/33 off 12 and Ball was hard to get away, returning 1/32 from 10. 

In the other Manning first grade clash United scored an outright win over Old Bar in the game at Old Bar.