Narrabri Touch Inc’s 2021 season suffered another blow this week when games scheduled to be played on Monday night were washed out, meaning teams have not played in more than five weeks since they last ran onto Hogan and Leitch Ovals on Monday, June 7.
The competition was set to return for a final week of grading games this week after two weeks off due to COVID-19 restrictions which followed two washed out rounds.
However, Narrabri received more rain late last week and the fields could not recover in time.
The Narrabri Touch committee has since made the decision to place the 20 teams into their grades for the remainder of the season.
Teams were graded based on their pool ladder positioning.
The two top-ranked teams on each of the Pool A and Pool B ladders were placed into A-grade, the third and fourth-ranked teams on each ladder were placed into B-grade, and so on.
The five grades are as follows:
A-grade – Agies, TRTW, Sprayerbarn Spinouts and Hammertime.
B-grade – Win or Booze, The Mob, Tapscott Pumpers and Hounddogs.
C-grade – Tradies and Ladies, Rags and Dags, Santos Emus and Witty Wizards.
D-grade – Outback Snaccs, Kalyx Krusaders, The Kerrigans and Coalbed.
E-grade – Mixed Styles, Vaughany’s Pump House, The Replacements and RSL Guys and Gals.
Each team will play the other three teams in its respective grade once ahead of a three-week finals series which will include major and minor semi-finals in week one, preliminary finals in week two and grand finals on Monday, August 23.
That grand final date could be pushed back a week or two if the competition is affected by more rain or COVID-19 restrictions later in the season, however, it is likely that only finals matches will be rescheduled and not any rounds during the three weeks prior to the semi-finals.
The draw for the first round of the graded season to be played on Monday, July 19, is as follows:
5.40pm: Opening and desk duty – Joan O’Neill and Outback Snaccs.
6pm: Field one – Tapscott Pumpers v Hounddogs (Wayne Nott, Cathy Conomos), field two – Santos Emus v Witty Wizards (Clifford Toomey Jnr, Tracy Warren), field three – The Kerrigans v Coalbed (Peter Quirk, Georgia Hardman), field four – Vaughany’s Pump House v Mixed Styles (Nathan Dicks, Kristie Toomey).
6.35pm: Desk duty – Tracy Warren, field one – Agies v Hammertime (Craig Gleeson, Cassidy Staines), field two – The Mob v Win or Booze (Abby McClure, Connor Duncan), field three – Tradies and Ladies v Rags and Dags (Ken Nolan, Tianne Parker), field four – The Replacements v RSL Guys and Gals (Jeremy Saunders, Heidi Campbell).
7.10pm: Closing and desk duty – Mereka Gleeson and The Mob, field one – Sprayer Barn Spinouts v TRTW (Tom Nolan, Linton Grumley), field two – Kalyx Krusaders v Outback Snaccs (Craig Gleeson, Sophie McFarland).
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