Winning start to the NDCA season for Boggabri second graders

The Boggabri Colts Cricket Club second XI made their local community proud on Saturday when they travelled to Gately Field and prevailed in their season-opener of Narrabri District Cricket Association’s 2025/26 campaign.

Making a return to competition cricket for the first time in nearly 20 years, the Colts challenged NDCA’s defending one day champs, the Narrabri Colts, and scored an 18-run T20 victory.

Boggabri batted first after being sent in by the Narrabri Colts’ captain David McInnes, and they made 96 runs before losing their final wicket off the last delivery of the innings. They then restricted the Narrabri Colts to 6-78 in 20 overs during the second innings to earn a crucial early win.

Given that the Boggabri club has not entered a second grade team in the one day competition this season, the side will not play another game until the T20 campaign resumes in December. However, their first grade team will line up in its first game of the season on Friday night when the Colts take on Wilga Hotel Razorbacks under lights at Hogan Oval in the first round of the NDCA first grade T20 competition.

The club’s second grade captain and publicity officer Craig Summers said he was proud of his club and his town following the win on Saturday and he commended youngsters Cooper Eames, Coen Gough and Chase Campbell, who he said all excelled in their senior debuts.

“It was a really good start to the new season,” Summers told The Courier.

“We’re excited to be back after nearly 20 years of not having a club.

“It’s always good to get a win, and it was really just a win to get a side on the paddock for us.

“To win against a team that’s got runs on the board from last year was pleasing, and it gives us a bit of confidence moving forward.

“We know now we can be competitive in this competition. At first, we weren’t too sure, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel now.

“There’s a couple of young kids there and they did really well.

“Chase had never played competitive cricket in his life and he got a wicket. Coen and Cooper hadn’t ever played senior cricket, and they both bowled really well too, so it was good for them all.

“Playing against Mick Dowdell (who Summers was formerly teammates with at RSL) is great. He is really good to play against because he’s really good with all the kids, not just the kids on his own team, but he was helping our kids as well.

“The Narrabri Colts club are doing a really good thing with their second grade side, and we’re just trying to do something similar at Boggabri.

“The club has 38 registered players now. We’ve got 18 kids and 20 seniors registered so far.

“Junior cricket for us will start on the 24th of October.”

Boggabri got off to a flying start on Saturday as their top-three trio Andrew Guest (17), Jarod Adams (19) and Nathan Millar (27) guided them to 1-44 after just six overs.

A big score was on the cards for the NDCA’s newest club, but Narrabri Colts’ Mick Dowdell (3-12 off three overs) and Fletcher Whan (3-20 off five overs) pinned them back to limit them to 96 runs.

A late cameo from Summers (13) helped get Boggabri close to a triple-digit total.

Narrabri Colts got off to a slow start to their chase as Boggabri restricted them to 3-23 off the first 10 overs, and although Narrabri ended up just six wickets down, they fell 19 runs short of a victory as the Boggabri boys held them to 78.

Cooper Eames starred for Boggabri with 2-8 from four overs to be named player of the match, and Jackson Woolley (2-12 off three overs), Coen Gough (1-11 off four overs), and Chase Campbell (1-19 off four overs) chipped in with the other four wickets.

Gareth Lamond top-scored for Narrabri Colts with 23 runs and the father-and-son duo of Mick and Jakson Dowdell both struck 15 runs.

The highly-anticipated NDCA second grade T20 competition grand final rematch between Tourist Hotel and RSL was also relocated from Cooma Oval to Gately Field, and it was played after the Colts’ fixture.

Tourist Hotel won that match by five wickets as they chased down the 103-run total set by RSL.

RSL skipper Beau Tomlinson elected to bat first after winning the toss, and his side batted out the 20 overs to finish with 7-102. Tourist Hotel then chased that total down in 17.4 overs after losing just five wickets.

Adam Gordon produced a player-of-the-match performance after opening the batting for Tourist Hotel and smashing an unbeaten 48 runs, and he put on a brilliant 79-run partnership with Chris Smith (36).

Jye Manton (2-10 off four overs) and Terry Baker (2-16 off three overs) were Tourist Hotel’s best with the ball, and RSL’s standouts were opening batsman Zanoah Grace, who top-scored with 28 runs, and opening bowler Zac Trindall, who took a team-best 2-15 from four overs.

Tatts had the round one bye on Saturday.

The second grade one day competition will get underway this Saturday when Tourist Hotel take on Tatts at Hogan Oval while RSL and Narrabri Colts go head-to-head at Gately Field.