The Narrabri RSL Cricket Club second grade side was determined to begin its Narrabri District Cricket Association T20 premiership defence in style on Saturday, but those plans were ruined by a hungry Tourist Hotel outfit.
The Tourist men got their campaign off to a flying start as they defeated the 2023/24 season champions by 61 runs at Leitch Oval.
They batted first after their co-captain Chris Smith won his first toss of the year, and they saw out the 20 overs to finish with 1-118 before knocking over RSL for just 57 runs in 15.5 overs.
The side’s veterans led the way in the comfortable victory as batsman Tim Hayne scored the first half-century of the season before opening bowlers Chris and Scott Smith combined for five of the eight required wickets.
Johnny Lawlor and Lucas Hogan opened the batting in the first innings and they got off to a relatively slow start as Tourist Hotel found itself on 0-22 after eight overs.
RSL’s skipper Justin Saunders then made the breakthrough when he took the game’s first wicket in the ninth over with the assistance of a Luke Baker catch to dismiss Hogan for 10 runs.
That wicket brought Hayne to the crease and the gun batsman smashed five sixes and two fours on his way to 50 runs before retiring at the end of the 15th over after he had brought up the half-century with a boundary.
Alan Whitmore replaced Hayne and scored an unbeaten 15, while Lawler finished unbeaten with 30 runs after he batted out the entire 20 overs.
Saunders (1-24 from four overs) was RSL’s only wicket-taker and teammate Rod Tomlinson (0-13 from four overs) was the side’s most economical on the day.
Tourist Hotel got off to a flying start to the second innings as skipper Chris Smith took two wickets in the first over as he knocked over Kyle McIlrick and Pat Wheeler for ducks.
McIlrick was caught by Jackson Hayne and Wheeler was caught by Scott Smith, and those two Tourist players then combined for the third wicket in the second over as Smith dismissed Lucas Duff for a duck with the assistance of a Hayne catch.
That made the score 3-1, which then became 4-8 during the fourth over as Scott Smith took his second wicket when he bowled Josh Buckthought (1).
Smith then took his second catch of the contest in the fifth over to help Andrew Wallace remove Baker (2) as RSL slumped to 5-12, with their top five batsmen scoring just three runs combined off the bat.
That left Tomlinson and Rowan Keeler together at the crease and they combined for RSL’s best partnership of the day as they put on 26 before Tomlinson (10) was bowled by Tim Hayne in the 10th over.
Keeler then departed in the 11th for a team-best 16 runs as he became Chris Smith’s third victim when Lawler took the fifth catch of the innings.
The RSL side was only able to field nine players on the day, which meant they only had one wicket in hand when Keeler was dismissed. Saunders and Shane Wheeler guided their team to 57 runs when Wheeler struck a four in the Wallace-bowled 16th over, but the bowler had the last laugh as he bowled Wheeler (9) to bring the match to an end.
Saunders finished unbeaten on one run as his team fell 62 runs short of victory.
Smith (3-9 from four overs) finished the game with best bowling figures, while his teammates Wallace (2-12 from 2.5 overs) and Scott Smith (2-14 from four overs) snagged two wickets each and Hayne (1-2 from one over) claimed the other.
Tourist Hotel will now go in search of their second win of the season this Saturday when they challenge Tatts at Leitch Oval.
Tatts went down in their round one game by six wickets against the SignPrintStitch Colts at Hogan Oval.
RSL will take on the Colts at Hogan Oval in round two.
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