Grace Farrer back with a bang at new team

Nandewar joined the winners’ circle on Friday night when they scored a dominant victory against Wahgunyah Dreamtime Mirri at Hogan Oval to kick off the second round of Narrabri District Women’s Cricket Association’s 2024/25 campaign in style.

Six days after going down by 16 runs in their season opener against last season’s grand finalists Wilga Hotel, Nandewar demolished the defending champions by 63 runs to bounce back and prove that they are a force to be reckoned with this time around.

The Nandewar ladies batted out the entire 20 overs in the first innings of the match and ended up with 5-115 before bowling out Wahgunyah for 52 runs in 15.3 overs.

New recruit Grace Farrer starred in her debut game for Nandewar as the former GFS Engineering gun smashed an unbeaten 60 runs. That saw the 2023/24 campaign top run-scorer become the first player to score a half-century in the women’s competition for the second season in a row.

Her teammate and the Nandewar side’s current leading run-scorer after two rounds, Jade Williams, was also a standout as she ended the innings unbeaten with 35 runs, while Emily Hartnett (2-23) was Wahgunyah’s best with the ball.

Farrer and Williams backed up their impressive batting efforts during the second innings with the ball as they combined for six wickets between them and conceded a combined seven runs as Williams took 3-3 and Farrer claimed 3-4.

Molly Welsh (26) was Wahgunyah’s top scorer and she registered half of her side’s total as they fell 64 runs short of victory.

The other match was won by Wilga Hotel, who downed GFS Engineering by six wickets at Collins Park on Saturday night.

GFS batted first and occupied the crease for the entire 20 overs, but they only managed to score 6-77, which Wilga then chased down in 15.4 overs.

Vanessa Rose (25*) top-scored for GFS while Zoe Tomlinson (2-15) was Wilga’s best with the ball, and in the second innings those efforts were both surpassed as Wilga’s Taryn Kirk scored a game-best unbeaten 31 runs and GFS’ Milly Adams took 2-10.

Wilga Hotel are the outright leaders after two rounds and are the only side to have won both of their first two games and accumulate 14 points.

Nandewar and Wahgunyah are both a win behind them on eight points following a win and a loss each, and GFS Engineering are last on the ladder with two points following two straight losses.

Round three matches this week will see Wahgunyah Dreamtime Mirri and Wilga Hotel go head-to-head in a grand final rematch at Hogan Oval on Friday night and then Nandewar take on GFS Engineering at Collins Park on Saturday night.