NDWCA’s 2025/26 campaign to get underway tomorrow night

Narrabri District Women’s Cricket Association’s fourth season will get underway tomorrow night as Redfern Contracting look to start on the front foot in their first premiership defence.

The Tori-Ann Geraghty-captained team, which has competed in the past three campaigns as Nandewar Motel, has had a name change this season but has maintained a similar roster to the one that guided them to grand final glory earlier this year.

They will meet last season’s wooden spooners GFS Engineering in their opening-round match under lights at Hogan Oval from 7pm.

Last season’s grand finalists, Wahgunyah Dreamtime Mirri, will kick off their campaign on Saturday night when they take on Wilga Hotel in round one, also under lights at Hogan Oval at 7pm.

The Wahgunyah ladies were the champions of the first two seasons and are the reigning minor premiers. Having been the most successful side across the first three NDWCA seasons, they are eager to stay on top and earn back the main trophy this season.

NDWCA president Mark Page told The Courier that he was excited for the new season to begin.

“Everyone seems excited for the new season, and we have a really good committee this year that have really gotten in and helped organise everything,” Page said.

“Our committee have been doing a great job, and everyone is moving in the right direction for the openers and the season.

“The players are keen. We’re showing good signs for numbers.

“We nearly got a fifth side in too (Boggabri Colts), but unfortunately that fell through at the 11th hour.

“We’ll work on them again for next season, and hopefully the interested players that were going to commit for that team will play some cameos for our four teams this season.

“We have less of a break over Christmas this season, which is great. That’s been the one thing I’ve really not enjoyed over the past few years, having a seven- or eight-week break. This season, it’s down to a four-week break.

“We’ll have six games before Christmas, then the remaining three games after Christmas, then the finals in February.”

Another exciting change for the NDWCA sides this year is a trial of playing on a full-length pitch across the first three rounds.

Matches were initially played on a pitch length that was two metres short of standard length, which was reduced to one metre short during the 2024/25 campaign.

Page said that the development of the players across the three seasons has been impressive and they are ready to step it up again. He also noted that the NDWCA is hopeful of producing young players for the Central North and Northern Inland representative pathways in the near future, as well as eventually getting a Narrabri under-18s team on the park, which the change to a full-length pitch will help facilitate.

The 2025/26 campaign regular season will be nine rounds long, which will see the teams play against one another three times each.

Rounds one, two, five, six and nine will be T20 fixtures that will be contested across two nights, with one game on a Friday and the other on a Saturday. However, rounds three and four and rounds seven and eight will be held on Saturdays as double-header T10 matches.

Rounds three and four will both be contested on November 29, and rounds seven and eight will both be held on January 17. On both of those days, the first two games will be played at 6.30pm and the next two matches will be played at 8pm. They will be contested side-by-side at Hogan Oval and Leitch Oval.

The finals series will again feature three teams, with the minor premiers going straight through to the February 14 grand final and the teams that are ranked second and third to meet in a prelim final on February 7.

The NDWCA draw also has a spare weekend set aside for the grand final on February 21, in case it is cancelled due to weather.