Narrabri District Cricket Association’s rep side will be sporting a new look this season, which they will be showing off this Saturday when the Northern Inland Cricket Council’s 2025/26 War Veterans Cup T20 campaign gets underway on home soil.

The new-look competition will be contested across three weekends in Narrabri, Tamworth and Armidale before the finals are hosted next year in February.

There will be 15 matches played in Narrabri across the weekend, 12 more held in Tamworth on Sunday, December 7, and nine contested in Armidale on Sunday, February 1.

At the completion of those 36 matches, all nine teams in the competition will have played against one another once each, and the four top-ranked teams on the ladder will progress to the semi-finals.

The War Veterans Cup competition was open to the Tamworth clubs and all other towns across the Northern Inland region this season.

It will include Narrabri, Gunnedah, Armidale, Moree and Inverell, as well as Tamworth clubs Old Boys, Bective, Norths and Wests.

Narrabri will play a whopping five matches on home soil this weekend as they prepare to host Armidale at Leitch Oval on Saturday morning, Wests at Gately Field that afternoon, Inverell at Collins Park that night, Gunnedah at Leitch Oval on Sunday morning and Moree at Leitch Oval on Sunday afternoon.

The Pink Slugs will be led by the 2024/25 campaign player of the season, Jack Tate, who dominated during his debut season in Narrabri and will also step up to captain his club at the Western Razorbacks as well. Tate was last season’s player of the year, rep player of the year, first grade best and fairest and first grade leading wicket-taker as he helped lead the Razorbacks to grand finals in the T20 and the one day competitions, as well as an undefeated first grade one day comp minor premiership.

The Pink Slugs men will play in new kits this season, which are predominantly blue to reflect Narrabri’s traditional colour. They also feature a pink slug on the chest and the numbers on the back will also be pink.

With all representative cricket in the Northern Inland region this season to be played with a white ball, a new coloured kit was required for the NDCA side following nearly a decade of dominance in their whites in the red ball arena.

NDCA secretary Bill Wood said the Pink Slugs were pumped to get back out on the field this weekend and would look stylish in their new kits during their five games.

“The new shirts look really good,” Wood said.

“The reason we went with that style is because we got some old team photos from The Courier, and there was a photo from about 30 years ago or thereabouts, we don’t know exactly when it was, but it is very similar to what they wore then.

“We really wanted to tap into the history of the association and we thought it’d be a nice touch to replicate something from the past.

“We’ve had success in a shirt similar to it too.

“We have a squad of 25 players, and three of those are unavailable this weekend.

“With us having five games this weekend, we’re probably going to need that many players to rotate through the games.

“There will be some players who might not get a game but will be required to field to give our bowlers and batsmen who need to back up a rest.

“It’ll be a whole squad mentality that we’ll be taking into the weekend.”

Wood also encouraged any local cricket fans to get along and support the NDCA side across the weekend, especially during the game under lights at Collins Park on Saturday night when Narrabri host Inverell, during which a barbecue will be cooking dinner.

The NDCA’s 2025/26 squad is as follows:
Jack Tate (c) (Razorbacks), Nathan Trindall (vc) (RSL), Josh Buckthought (RSL), Rowan Keeler (RSL), Andrew Harvey (RSL), Bailey Keeler (RSL),
Brodie Heron (Tatts), Alin Chhantyal (RSL), Greg Melton (Razorbacks), Cody Kember (Boggabri Colts), Clay Hoffman (Razorbacks), Hamish Duncan (Tourist Hotel), Jake Brayshaw (RSL), Matt Bradshaw (Razorbacks), Dylan Smith (Razorbacks), Nathan Millar (Boggabri Colts), Dylan Segundo (Tourist Hotel), Jakeb Nipperess (Tatts), Matt Conroy (Tourist), Patrick Hubbard (Razorbacks), Nick Tomlinson (Tourist Hotel), Percival Thawaits (RSL), Allan Whitmore (RSL), Zack Doring (Razorbacks), Dillon Hutton (Tatts).

This weekend’s schedule is as follows:

Saturday:
9am: Narrabri v Armidale (Leitch Oval), Norths v Gunnedah (Hogan Oval), Old Boys v Bective (Collins Park).
12.15pm: Narrabri v Wests (Gately Field), Old Boys v Inverell (Collins Park), Norths vs Armidale (Hogan Oval), Bective v Gunnedah (Leitch Oval).
3.30pm: Gunnedah v Wests (Leitch Oval), Armidale v Bective (Hogan Oval), Inverell vs Norths (Collins Park).
6.45pm: Narrabri v Inverell (Collins Park).

Sunday:
9am: Inverell v Moree (Hogan Oval), Narrabri v Gunnedah (Leitch Oval).
12.15pm: Gunnedah v Inverell (Hogan Oval), Narrabri v Moree (Leitch Oval).

MA Connolly Cup campaign to begin in November

Northern Inland Cricket Council’s 2025/26 MA Connolly Cup representative 40-over campaign will get underway in November as the Narrabri District Cricket Association’s Pink Slugs and six other teams begin their quest for glory in the region’s inter-district one day competition.

This season’s competition features Narrabri, Gunnedah, Moree, Tamworth, Armidale, Gwydir and Inverell.

The pool format of previous seasons has been scrapped, with all teams now to play against one another once each across seven rounds. All sides will get three games at home and three away.

The Pink Slugs last made the grand final of the competition in the 2023/24 season and they were beaten in March 2024 by Tamworth.

Their quest to get back to the big dance and win the title for the first time since 2022 will begin on Sunday, November 2, against Tamworth.

They will then play away against Gwydir on Sunday, November 16 in round two, before they travel to Armidale for round three on Sunday, November 23.

The Pink Slugs will host their round four clash against Gunnedah on Sunday, December 12, and will travel to Moree on Sunday, December 21 for round five.

The season will resume after the Christmas and holiday break on Sunday, February 8, and the Pink Slugs will host Inverell that day. They will then have the bye in round seven.

There will be no semi-finals this season, with a grand final between the teams ranked first and second on the ladder to be played on Sunday, March 1.