Home grand final in sight as the Pink Slugs demolish Inverell in MA Connolly Cup clash

Collins Park is likely to host the Northern Inland Cricket Council’s 2025/26 season MA Connolly Cup grand final after Narrabri District Cricket Association’s representative first XI produced a demolition job on home soil on Sunday to lock in a spot in the decider.

In their last match of the regular season ahead of a final-round bye, the Pink Slugs welcomed Inverell to town for their round six encounter and prevailed by 111 runs at Collins Park.

Jack Tate elected to bat after winning the toss, and the NDCA men batted out their 40 overs to finish with 7-185 before ripping Inverell apart for just 74 runs in 26.3 overs.

The victory saw the Pink Slugs end the regular season with 16 points following three wins, one loss and two washouts, with no other side now able to overtake them despite them sitting out with the round seven bye.

They are now not only in the box seat for a home grand final, but also to secure a spot in the NSW Country Plate knockout tournament, which will be awarded to the side that finishes highest on the ladder in the MA Connolly Cup competition with the exception of Tamworth, who are not eligible to take part in the tournament.

Second-placed Tamworth and third-placed Moree are locked on 12 points each following Tamworth’s seven-wicket win at home against Gwydir on Sunday and Moree’s round six bye, and those two sides will meet one another in round seven for a chance to take on Narrabri in the decider. However, it would take a large win for either of those sides to overtake the Pink Slugs at the top.

Armidale (10), Gwydir (8), Gunnedah (8) and Inverell (6) are all out of contention for a top-two finish.

Narrabri’s top order was stacked with talent on Sunday as the four leading run-scorers in the NDCA’s first grade one day competition were tasked with getting the hosts off to a positive start.

They did exactly that, with Matt Bradshaw (74) and Hamish Duncan (31) putting on a 98-run partnership for the second wicket after Greg Melton (11) had been bowled during the sixth over.

Bradshaw smashed seven fours and two sixes in the almost 30 overs he spent in the middle as the NDCA’s top first grade run-scorer continued a sensational season with his third half-century of the campaign.

With Narrabri cruising at 1-116 after 25 overs, Inverell threw the ball to Troy Brabant, who knocked over Duncan with his first delivery and went on to take three more wickets and secure a fifth via a runout. He claimed the big wicket of Bradshaw in the 30th over and then removed Jake Brayshaw (7), Jack Tate (4), Jakeb Nipperess (6) and Jarod Adams (5) cheaply.

Nick Tomlinson (19*) and Clay Hoffman (14*) steadied the ship for the Pink Slugs late in the innings as they produced an unbeaten 31-run partnership to guide the hosts to 7-185 at the completion of the 40-over innings.

Tate then opened the bowling with himself and his vice-captain Nathan Trindall in the second innings, and the duo delivered early on for their team with a wicket each to get the home side on the front foot. Tate got the ball rolling when he knocked over Dave Mudaliar (4) in the fifth over with the assist of a Duncan catch, which was a massive scalp for the Pink Slugs after the Inverell batsman had blasted 103 runs in a War Veterans Cup T20 match in Armidale earlier this month. Trindall dismissed Ryan Campbell (6) in the sixth over as Adams held onto a catch, and Tate struck again in the eighth over as Tomlinson took the Slugs’ third catch of the day to dismiss Brabant (2).

Inverell opener Tom Nelson was then joined by Rohan Guest, and the duo produced their side’s best partnership of the contest as they put on 26 runs for the fourth wicket. Nelson (28) scored the bulk of those before he was caught by Tate during a Hoffman wicket-maiden.

That made the score 4-58, and the visitors only managed 16 more runs as Hoffman ripped through the middle order and tail end to finish with 5-20 from 7.3 overs.

Dylan Segundo (1-10 from six overs) and Brayshaw (1-6 from two overs) also claimed a wicket each, while Tate (2-21 from six overs) and Trindall (1-15 from five overs) were not required to bowl again following their earlier spells.

Narrabri now turn their attention to Sunday’s War Veterans Cup T20 competition. They will travel to Tamworth to play against Old Boys in the semi-final while North Tamworth Redbacks host Inverell in the other semi-final.

The winners of those two matches will then meet in the grand final later that day.

Northern Inland Cricket Council has a backup date planned if those games are washed out.

The third and final round of War Veterans Cup matches were played in Armidale on Sunday, February 1, after Narrabri hosted matches on Sunday, October 11, and Tamworth hosted fixtures on Sunday, December 7.

The Pink Slugs finished the regular season campaign having won five matches, lost one and missed out on two games due to washouts.

The ladder is as follows: North Tamworth Redbacks (28), Old Boys (26), Narrabri (24), Inverell (20), Bective East (16), Armidale (10), West Tamworth (8), Moree (8), Gunnedah (4).