Top of the table spot on the line when RSL and Civeo meet tomorrow

Christmas will come early for either Civeo Tourist Cricket Club or Narrabri RSL Cricket Club tomorrow when the two clubs’ first XIs meet in round nine of the Narrabri District Cricket Association 2020-21 first grade one day competition at Hogan Oval.

The top-ranked duo will be battling for first place on the ladder in that match. They have both won five of their seven games this season, and are both on 41 points following two losses each as well as a wash out draw. They are both two wins clear of third-placed Western Razorbacks (29 points) and four wins clear of last-placed Tatts (17 points).

Tomorrow’s round nine matches will be the last for the calendar year for the first grade sides, meaning the team which wins the match at Hogan Oval will enter the Christmas/New Year break on top of the table.

That is a desirable situation to be in based on recent history. The past six teams to finish first on the ladder at the season’s end, earning automatic grand final qualification by doing so, led the ladder at Christmas.

The last team to go into the Christmas break with the most points and not finish first was Tatts in the 2013-14 campaign, however it still finished on the most points that season, level on 93 with Golf Club but being forced to settle for second when runs for and against and wickets taken and lost were all calculated.

Civeo co-captain Luke Meppem said that winning tomorrow would give his team confidence.

“Going into Christmas on top would be a massive confidence booster,” Meppem said.

“It’s always good to see your name on top of the ladder and at the moment we are on a bit of a roll anyway, winning five in a row.

“There’s only six games to go after Christmas, so even though it would only be one win in front that’s still a massive boost, we’d be in the box seat.

“We saw first hand last season that anything can happen in the preliminary final (second-placed Civeo lost against third-placed Western Razorbacks in a match which went down to the final ball) so we want to finish first to guarantee a grand final spot.”

RSL captain Jarrett Tough said that tomorrow’s game was as important as any other.

“It’d be good to finish first but we are more focused on winning the grand final,” Tough said.

“We want to win every game so we are definitely turning up to win.

“We are one and one against [Civeo] this season so it’d be good to get another one over them.”

RSL will be missing two of its top order batsmen in Hamish Duncan and Shane Murphy tomorrow, but the side welcomes back Mick Dowdell and Nathan Trindall to its lineup.

For Civeo, Meppem and Jordyn Mowle are unavailable and will be replaced by the returning Riley Jenkins and Mitch Clifton.

The sides’ round nine encounter is excepted to be a battle of the batting.

In round eight last Saturday, RSL’s top five outscored Tatts’ 129 runs to 38 in a 143-run victory, while Civeo’s top six outscored the Western Razorbacks’ 167 to 28 in an 84-run win.

“RSL’s strength is their batting,” Meppem said.

“It’s not one person you have to worry about, there’s about eight or nine there that can bat and have all scored runs against us in the past.

“They’ve got the comp’s leading runscorer in Zaac Brayshaw who’s in good form.

“But when you look at us, the last few weeks our top order has really stood up and set the platform for us and the lower order players haven’t had to do a lot so we’ll need to continue that [tomorrow].”

Tough said that with two key players out, others would need to step up.

“I reckon we are pretty evenly matched in the batting,” Tough said.

“We are missing Murph and Hamish though so we’ll need a couple of other players to step up and I think we will do that.”

The competition’s three leading wicket takers will also be in action on Saturday. Civeo’s Jade Lees leads the competition with 13 wickets, followed closely by RSL duo Jake Brayshaw (12 wickets) and Matt Tubner (11 wickets).

Meppem and Tough agreed that how the spinners bowl in the top-of-the-table clash, and how the batsmen play them, will go a long way to determining who wins the match.