After winning the toss and electing to bat first on their home track – Hayden Drexel Oval – Ex-Servos posted an impressive 5/297 from 70.1 overs at the crease.

Openers Bramley and Daniel Gleeson got the hosts off to a flying start, reaching 96 before the first wicket was lost.

On 51, skipper Gleeson was caught by Lewis O’Brien off the bowling of Luke Bowden – but all that did was bring experienced campaigner Graham Phillis to the crease.

Phillis and Bramley then put on a 146-run second wicket stand, to get the hosts to 242 before Bramley was dismissed for 122 – an innings that included 15 boundaries.

Phillis was next to go for 63, before some big hitting by Trevor Thomason (32 not out) and Matt Tyler (17) got to 297 before declaring.

For the visitors, Luke Bowden was the pick of the bowlers, claiming 3/88 from his 20 overs, while Jack Watts claimed 1/87 from his 18.1 overs.

Gleeson and his team made the declaration to get a chance to claim an all important scalp before stumps.

But Nowra’s Jason Bell (5 not out) and Justin Wallace (four not out) withstood the five overs from bowlers Mathew Ganderton, Nate Jones and Matt Tyler, to be 0/10 at the end of day one. 

“It was a good toss to win on Saturday, with a good wicket and the warm weather,” Ex-Servos’ skipper Daniel Gleeson said.

“In saying that, we still needed to take advantage of it and thankfully Chris Bramley was able to score his second century in a row.

“It was also good to see Trevor Thomason, Graham Phillis and myself get runs under our belts too.

“The work isn’t done yet though, with it crucial that we turn up next week and perform because in my eyes, this is a must win game for us if we want to play finals.

“The past two wins have been good but we need to keep pushing for bonus points where we can.”