Col Smyth and Angus McNeill tore Narrabri’s batting order apart before Michael Rixon put an exclamation mark on another dominant performance.

He finished unbeaten on 40, and Calum Rowe 14, as Tamworth chased down the 60 runs required for victory in just 5.1 overs.

It completed a resounding first round from the defending champions after thrashing Gunnedah by 228-runs and then Armidale by eight wickets. Yesterday Narrabri batted first but was on its heels early with Smyth bowling Daniel Kahl in the first over.

Things quickly deteriorated from there and at 6-16 it looked like Tamworth might roll through the visitors for less than 40.

Michael Miskle (15) and Chris Higgins (20) showed some resistance but it was only brief with Tamworth taking less then 22 overs to roll through them.

“Angus and Col bowled really well. It was probably their day,” Tamworth skipper Tom Groth said.

“Both were swinging it early.”

“There was a little bit of moisture there, but they just put it in the right areas.”

That was reflected in the mode of dismissals with half of the wickets either bowled or lbw.

Smyth and McNeill claimed eight between them with Smyth finishing with 4-23 and McNeill 4-30.

Groth said Higgins played a few shots but other than him, no-one really caused them any trouble.

Skipper Lachlan Cameron was the big wicket and they got him early. 

“Once we got Lachie and Caleb (Risson) out we were pretty right,” he said. Rixon then got Tamworth’s chase off to a flyer.

He faced just 19 balls for his 40, which included three fours and two cracking sixes in the third over that took Tamworth to 1-40.

“It was good for Mick to have a hit,” Groth said.

“We’ve got a couple of big games coming up.”

Next weekend they head out to Gunnedah to start the War Veterans Cup second round.

The following weekend they’ve got Coffs Harbour to open their SCG Country Cup campaign.

The Narrabri scorecard made dismal reading but Cameron credited the bowlers for a lot of it.

“I guess it wasn’t terrible batting, just good bowling,” Cameron said.

“Credit to Col and Gus, They were right on the spot from ball one.”

He said the pitch did do a bit, but not enough to account for the tumbling wickets.

“The positive to come out of it was how Dylan Segundo bowled,” he said.

“He’s only 17.

“He was running into two Central North batsmen and got one of them (Simon Norvill).

“He didn’t look out of place.”

In the treatment that the Tamworth batsmen dished out he fared  reasonably well.