THEY’VE met many a time on the rugby and league fields but it’s been a while since Moree and Narrabri have clashed on the cricket pitch.
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Tomorrow they’ll spark up that rivalry again with Moree hosting Narrabri in the Connolly Cup.
It’ll be the first Connolly Cup outing for both, and both will be looking to improve on their first rep performances.
Moree was thrashed by Inverell in the Country Plate, while Narrabri went down by a run to Gunnedah in the Country Shield.
Narrabri selectors have been forced to make a few changes to that side.
Ryan Meppem is away on rep assignment with the Central North U17s.
Brendon Ward, Chris Higgins and Daniel Kahl are also all out.
Ryan O’Neill, Brady Jenkins, Zaac Brayshaw and Matt Potter come in for them.
Potter has only recently returned to town and is playing with skipper Lachlan Cameron’s Civeo team.
He hasn’t played much cricket in the past 12 months but Cameron knows what he is capable of.
“It’d be nice if he could find the form he had the year he left,” Cameron said.
“He scored 750 runs in the first grade comp that year.”
O’Neill and Jenkins’ inclusions boost the pace stocks.
They went into the Gunnedah game with Dylan Segundo as the only genuine quick.
They probably did miss that extra pace option.
That said, spinners Jake Brayshaw and Chris Sargent will “still get plenty of bowling”.
Michael Miskle and Nick Smart can also bowl a few overs if needed, and the skipper.
The big thing for them from the last game is getting more runs on the board.
That starts with batting their 50 overs out.
“Our top order is pretty much as strong as we could get it,” Cameron said.
“We need someone in that top five or six to get us a score.”
Moree will also be looking to its top order to to stand up.
They’ve got some real pinch-hitters in the middle order and, if the top order can get them off to a good start, that will give them the freedom to hit out.
One of the areas they fell down against Inverell was with the bat.
Tomorrow’s side though looks very different to that one.
“It’s a much stronger side than the last side we had,” president Kyle O’Connor said.
“Alf (Newman) is back. Coshy (Jordan Cosh) and Betto (Nick Bettington) are up the top.”
Bettington is coming off a century last weekend.
Mick Davison also has a ton to his name and will come in at four.