Hard-hitting pace bowler Raffaele Colucci smashed the first ball he faced to the mid-wicket boundary as his side made 99-5 in 19.4 overs to win the game.
King’s Own skipper Jonah Reynolds took two wickets for seven runs off three overs in the second innings, having earlier won the toss on Nelson Park No.5 and opting to bat.
Jonah Reynolds (43), batting at second drop, and left-hander opener Pranash Senthooran (19) dealt with the bad ball mercilessly.
Colucci bowled far better than his figures of 0-14 in four overs suggest.
The King’s Men lost two wickets with the score at 40.
Jonah and younger cousin Jed Reynolds (8) then put on 55 together.
Blues and Royals medium pacer Callum McInnes took 1-1 off four overs, and Jonah’s dismissal to a high catch at mid-off last ball of the innings - after taking 18 off the last over - set the match up for a close contest.
In the second innings, Jed Martyn and Zac Robinson, on their Challenge Cup debut for the Blues, both got off the mark with memorable shots - Martyn with a cover drive, Robinson an off-drive - and hard running between the wickets.
Senior players, never mind captains, do what Caleb Taewa did for The Admiralty on Wednesday.
He won the toss, chose to bat and made the highest individual score of the grade so far with 73 as first-drop in a 27-run win over The Life Guards.
Taewa and Jack Williams (53) chose to retire, allowing Charlie Hope and Cody McMurray to make runs in a total of 162-1.
The Life Guards’ Kegan Van Zyl, a promising seamer, took one wicket for 28 runs off three overs - that wicket being Williams’s opening partner Brandon Fearnley (9).
The tall, athletic Fearnley hit the first ball of the game on Nelson Park to the boundary and may this season show more than his bowling prowess only.
Chasing 163, Mitchell Van Zyl belted two sixes and three fours in his 11 ball-knock of 29.
First-drop Joel Kirkpatrick made the Guards’ top score of 34, second-drop Lachlan Smith hit three boundaries in his 24 and Charlie Whitfield, batting at five, scored 22.
Young outswing bowler McMurray, with 2-19 off four overs, went through the defences of Kirkpatrick and Whitfield.
Taewa, who had a keen eye on both teams, said: “Jack played well. He consistently put the bad ball away with control and pushed singles when boundaries weren’t available. In the second innings, Cody bowled line and length and put pressure on their batsmen.
“Charlie Hope bowled four great overs for us and made the batsmen play. For the Life Guards, Lachlan batted really well with shots down the ground and, like Mitch, pounced on anything short.”
