Three Tamworth junior sides met the tourists in three games of Twenty20 at Riverside yesterday afternoon.

The games served as a warm-up for many of the players for the Northern Inland Invitational carnival, which will kick off tomorrow and finish on Monday.

Scots will battle it out with sides from the Northern Inland, Hunter Valley and the Mid North Coast in all three age divisions, playing each side once over the three days.

The majority of the Scots U14 side  are here to defend a title, according to coach Scott Sandberg.

“They won the tournament last year as U13s and want to do it again,” Sandberg said.

“It is a really good association that we have going and a great way to start our season off.”

Sandberg’s side will get a full game of one-day cricket under their belt and a look around the region when they make the trip to Armidale to face a TAS side.

Because of the school holidays, TAS could only field one team.

“The other sides have the easy life,” Sandberg said.

“They will train in the morning and just relax before the weekend.” 

This is the third year that Scots have sent sides to the tournament, sending only one team in 2013, but now fielding an U13s, U14s and U16s.

Last season Scots took out the first grade GPS cricket title for the first time since 1989 and Sandberg not only likes their chances again this year but also the future crop that are playing here.

“A lot of that first grade side will play again this season,” Sandberg said.

“There are a lot of really good cricketers coming through and playing here as well so it looks good.” 

Yesterday morning the Scots college coaches joined staff from Cricket NSW, as well as some talented Central North U16s to run a holiday camp for juniors.

The camp was supposed to be held at Riverside 2, although after vandals destroyed the square on Tuesday night, the camp was moved.

“It was pretty good. We just went through some basics and did some drills with the young players,” Sandberg said. 

“It is a big few days of cricket.”