Tatts end regular season on a high as Craig rips through RSL

Tatts Cricket Club will enter the Narrabri District Cricket Association’s 2025/26 season finals series with some serious momentum behind them after dismantling RSL at Hogan Oval on Saturday to extend their impressive winning streak to four matches, locking in a memorable clean sweep of the competition in February.

A Tom Craig-inspired performance saw Tatts prevail by 144 runs against the defending champions as the gun all-rounder took 7-18 from eight overs to help limit RSL to 49 runs in 23.4 overs after his side had made 9-193 in the first innings.

Craig’s spell included a triple-wicket maiden and saw RSL crumble to 9-41 after they had been somewhat comfortable at 2-23 after 11 overs.

The massive victory capped off one of the most dominant months in Tatts’ history as they now set their sights on another premiership. They took down Tourist Hotel by four wickets in round 11 after bowling them out for 97, prevailed by eight wickets against Boggabri in round 12 after bowling them out for 39, and won by seven wickets against the Razorbacks in round 13 after bowling them out for 53 in round 13.

That run of golden form, coupled with the club’s second grade side’s undefeated February to secure their competition’s minor premiership, has also earned them the club championship for the 2025/26 campaign.

The big question mark hanging over Josh Campbell’s side’s heads late in the season was their ability to put a quality score on the board in the first innings of a match, given they had only had the chance to bat first once in the one day arena all season, although they did put on 5-211 in the first innings of their T20 grand final victory back in January.

They squashed any of those concerns on Saturday though as they proved they will be a danger no matter the outcome of the toss by batting out the entire 40 overs to fall seven runs short of the 200-mark.

RSL did manage an early wicket in the contest at Hogan Oval as Craig (5) was caught by Max Hunter during the Andrew Harvey-bowled sixth over to make the score 1-20, which then became 2-33 in the ninth over when Harvey’s opening bowling partner Nathan Trindall knocked over Craig’s opening batting partner Jacob Nichols (22) with the assistance of a Jordan Doolan catch.

Those two wickets left Jake Packer and Craig Gleeson together out in the middle, and the duo produced their side’s largest partnership of the game as they put on 61 together before Gleeson (28) was bowled by Jake Brayshaw in the 19th over.

RSL’s skipper Jarrett Tough wrestled back some momentum for his side as he took three wickets in three overs to make the score 5-113 in the 24th over, but Packer continued to grind out a knock that would guide Tatts to a defendable total as their number three batsman reached 50 runs in the 31st over. He was bowled by Brayshaw from the very next delivery after reaching that milestone, but late cameos from Waldo Botha (19) and Ed Currall (14) helped guide Tatts to a final score of 9-193, and they were also assisted by 46 extras from the defending champions.

RSL’s best with the ball was their skipper as Tough ended up with 3-26 from eight overs.

Jonty Schwager entered round 14 in serious form following nine wickets from his previous three matches, but it was his opening bowling partner Brodie Heron who provided the early damage this time as he ripped through both RSL openers with ease. Heron dismissed Tough (1) in the second over with the assistance of a Campbell catch and then trapped Brayshaw (1) in front LBW in the fourth over to start the game with back-to-back wicket-maidens.

Max Hunter (7) and Tim Shields (14) did their best to get the RSL innings on track before Craig took over the game as he ripped the chasing side apart with seven wickets, twice finding himself on a hat-trick.

Shane Murphy had entered at number five for RSL and top-scored with 15 runs as he watched on while six partners were dismissed before he was the last to fall when he was caught by Heron in the Campbell-bowled 24th over as the chasing side stumbled to 49 runs.

The defending champions will look to end a four-game losing streak this Saturday in the last round of the regular season when they take on the Boggabri Colts at Jubilee Oval. The winner of that match will clinch third place and will meet Tatts in the March 14 preliminary final contest.

The other round 15 game will see Tourist Hotel and the minor premiers, Wilga Hotel Razorbacks, meet at Collins Park while Tatts sit out with the final-round bye.