New era, local pride, star power: The Boggabri Colts are coming back

After more than 15 years of hibernation, the Boggabri Colts Cricket Club is back and ready to shake up Narrabri District Cricket Association’s competition during the 2025/26 season.

In a town where sport is the heartbeat of the community, the return of the Colts is not just about cricket; it is also about revival, legacy, and writing a new chapter in Boggabri’s proud sporting history.

After plenty of talks and discussions across the past few months, the club held a committee meeting at the Boggabri RSL Club last week on Monday, September 8, ahead of the NDCA’s annual general meeting at the Narrabri Bowling Club last Wednesday, September 10.

A committee was formed with Nathan Millar as the club’s president and with Lenny Beckett (vice-president), Ash Gough (treasurer), Kate Gough (secretary), Craig Summers (publicity officer/sponsorship), Nick Millar, Jason Kemp, Jayde Campbell and Jarrod Adams (general committee members) in the other positions.

Nathan Millar, Summers and Campbell all travelled to Narrabri for the association’s annual general meeting and nominated two teams, one for first grade and one for second grade.

The Boggabri club will also host junior cricket for youngsters aged 6-12 years old on Friday evenings, and is putting together a women’s team for the Narrabri District Women’s Cricket Association’s 2025/26 campaign as well.

For Summers, getting the club up and running and bringing the Colts back to town was simply a no-brainer.

“I think it’s very important for Boggabri. The town doesn’t have a summer sport,” Summers told The Courier.

“To have something else for the town to have an interest in during summer is something that is really needed in Boggabri, I think.

“There hasn’t been a cricket club here for about 15 years, they reckon. We’ve kept the same name and we’ve done a modern take on the old logo, so it’s a similar logo.”

The NDCA board’s secretary Bill Wood said it was positive for the town of Boggabri and for the local competition that the Boggabri Colts have formed and come on board this season, and he said it was an major boost that they are focused on junior and women’s cricket as well.

The Colts are raring to go ahead of the new NDCA season, which will get underway either the weekend of October 11 and 12 or October 18 and 19.

They have plenty of well-known Boggabri locals such as Jayde Campbell, who was part of the last Colts side that played, Jarrod Adams and Nick and Nathan Millar.

In a major coup, the club has also welcomed the addition of Cody Kember.

Kember has been a major part of the Narrabri RSL Cricket Club’s first grade era of dominance, during which he and his former teammates won five straight first grade one day premierships and last season’s T20 premiership. The gun all-rounder also earned a grand final player-of-the-match medal, a leading wicket-taker trophy and a best and fairest trophy during his time at RSL, so the Colts are well aware that they will have one of the best players in the local competition at their disposal.

Despite Kember’s success with RSL, he is a Boggabri local and is keen to help his hometown get the club up and running and be successful this season.

The Colts are still looking for more players, but Summers is hopeful that they will get two senior teams up and running this year.

“We’ll definitely have a first grade side go ahead. We’ve got enough numbers for that,” Summers said.

“Second grade, we’re trying to bring the youth through and have a few old heads to help them, similar to what most second grade sides do in Narrabri, especially what Mick (Dowdell) has done with the Colts side up there.

“We held a sort of training session and come and try day on Sunday, and we will be running another one in a fortnight (Sunday, September 28). If anyone has any interest, whether you want to be a player, supporter, committee member, scorer or umpire, come along.

“We’ll be having a barbecue after it too.”

In another major coup for the Colts, the NDCA is expected to allocate them eight home games at Jubilee Oval across the season in both formats.

The draw will be released in the coming weeks.

There are expected to be 20 rounds combined across the one day and T20 formats during the 2025/26 campaign, with both grades to include five teams each. That would see all teams play 16 matches each, so the Boggabri Colts sides will get to play half of those at home.

Jubilee Oval had new LED lights installed late last year, which will ensure the Colts are able to host T20s at night as well as day/night one-day games.