Namoi Bush Cricket Super 8s comp in Boggabri begins

The Namoi Bush Cricket Super 8s competition began in Boggabri on Sunday with three entertaining games at Jubilee Oval.

The competition has six teams which will all play against one another once across five different Sunday matchdays ahead of the April 5 grand final day.

Round two will be played on December 9, followed by round three on February 9, round four on March 8 and round five on March 29.

The six teams in the competition are McKechnie’s Garage (Boggabri Kangaroos rugby league club team), Thyme 2 Eat (Narrabri Blue Boars rugby union club team), Narrabri 4WD (team made up of current and retired Narrabri cricketers), The Pony Express (a team made up of Boggabri locals), JM Harvesting (a Baan Baa side including the Whans and the Maunders) and Ross Mechanical (a mixture of players from Baan Baa, Maules Creek and Boggabri).

The Boggabri RSL is the major sponsor of the competition and after each of the six matchdays all teams gather there for a presentation and other activities.

Competition organiser Craig Summers said there was a hiccup before the competition even started, but it was a positive one.

“It’s turned into a 10-a-side competition,” Summers said.

“We were going to go with an eight-a-side comp but we ended up getting too many numbers so we put it up to 10. We originally didn’t think we’d get these numbers so we started at eight but we got great numbers so we’ve moved it to 10s.

“The numbers made it a 10-a-side, 10-over format.

“We kept the name as 8s though because we’d already promoted it and it was too hard to change.”

Summers told The Courier that his motivation to start a cricket competition like the Namoi Bush Cricket Super 8s was due to a lack of sport available for people in Boggabri to play.

In round one on Sunday the side which batted first in each of the three games won their respective matches.

JM Harvesting took on Ross Mechanical in the first game of the season.

JM Harvesting batted first and made 106 before limiting Ross Mechanical to 89 to win by 17 runs.

In game two it was a battle of the footy clubs as Thyme 2 Eat went head-to-head with McKechnie’s Garage.

McKechnie’s Garage batted first and made 72 runs before restricting Thyme 2 Eat’s score to 60 to claim a 12-run victory.

In the third and final round one game Narrabri 4WD challenged The Pony Express.

Narrabri 4WD won that match by 20 runs after scoring 87 and keeping The Pony Express to 67.

In round two Ross Mechanical takes on McKechnie’s Garage in game one, before JM Harvesting and Narrabri 4WD go head-to-head in game two and Thyme 2 Eat and The Pony Express meet in the third and final game on the day.