After overcoming the Armidale Second XI last weekend a win would guarantee the Blues finish first, but Gwydir won’t be an easy assignment.

They still have an outside chance of earning a home semi and will be smarting from a five wicket last round loss to Moree.

“I think they’ll play better than last week,” Blues skipper Chris Paterson said.

The addition of Kris Halloran will be a big bonus, and the North Tamworth batsmen will be a prized wicket for the Blues.

Paterson couldn’t have been happier with how his side, which was ravaged by unavailabilities, performed against Armidale.

“It was great. All the boys wanted to be there and they played well,” he said.

After his vintage knock (91 off 97) Dan Whale retains his spot in the side and will open the batting with Paterson’s son Jye, who is returning from State Challenge duties, along with Tom Fitzgerald.

They will still though be without Lachie Davidson. He and Lachie Fauchon will be en route to the South Coast with the North West CHS side ahead of the State Carnival which gets underway on Monday.

Gwydir will need an improved performance with bat and ball, and in the field, from what they produced against Moree.

The signs were ominous when batting first they found themselves 5-12. 

“A couple of the young fellas – Dylan Butler (18) and Sebastian West (34) batted well,” skipper Luke Smith said.

Jason Mack, Jack McCarthy and Nilsson West also made valuable contributions as they recovered to scramble to 160.

It was under what he would have hoped but, Smith thought, still enough to win. 

But they couldn’t back up with the ball, dropped catches and some inconsistent bowling hurt them.

They’ll be two areas they’ll be looking to turn things around on Sunday. They can’t afford to gift the Blues any chances or easy runs.

“We just need to get a bit more balance as a bowling unit,” Smith said.

They will again be missing the punch of Matt McRae, who has in Smith’s assessment probably been their best bowler, but, as well as Halloran do get Dougal Cameron back.

“Those two will make a massive different to our batting,” he said.

“We’ll keep the same middle order, reward them for what they did last week.”

In the other final round games Glen Innes host Armidale while Gunnedah head to Quirindi. The make-up of the top four looks set with Gunnedah, as the table stands, to join the Blues, Armidale and Gwydir in next weekend’s semi-finals. It’s just a matter of where they are played.

Tamworth Blues: Jye Paterson, Dan Whale, Tom Fitzgerald, AJ Pretorius, Chris Dempsey, Liam Cameron, Chris Paterson ©, Dan Collinson, Tait Jordan, Dave Brannan, Brad Redshaw, Tim Unwin.