Tamworth's batting woes of the first day returned to haunt them on Friday afternoon as they suffered their first loss of the Walter Taylor Shield.
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After thrashing Hunter Valley in their morning Twenty20, the Craig Baker-coached side were beaten by Northern Rivers by 12 runs.
Bowling first Tamworth restricted Northern Rivers to 6-96 from their 20 overs, Sam Murphy taking 2-18, Ben Chick 2-12, Deni Baker 1-11 and Sam Anderson 1-14.
But in what was dejavu to their opening clash against the Brisbane Bears, albeit with a different end result, their run chase couldn't have started more horribly. They lost Charlie Henderson and Chick cheaply to find themselves 2-14 (they were 2-10 against the Bears).
Despite the best efforts of Will Doyle, who again performed the anchor role and was their top-scorer with 20 (and only batsmen to make double figures), they never recovered and could only manage 9-84 in reply.
"We needed 22 off the last over and we got 10," Baker said, commenting that it was probably their best over of the match.
Generally they just scored too slowly, or were too rash, trying to hit boundaries off every ball.
That was reflected in the mode of the dismissals with six of the wickets catches.
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Baker said Northern Rivers were very also very vocal in the field, which seemed to throw them.
"Northern Rivers were really loud in the field. It got to them a bit," he said.
After batting for 30 overs on the first day, he praised Doyle's effort.
Normally opening, he said to his team-mates before the game that he was "cooked" and was happy to drop down the order. He ended up in in the opening over and batted through to the 17th.
The afternoon game was a contrast to the morning.
Chasing Hunter's 5-80, they got the runs in 13 overs.
Henderson (23) and Doyle (13) set a strong foundation with a 38 run partnership for the first wicket.
Deni Baker and Mim Barbara then steered them to victory after Ky Sharp had again made a valuable contribution, following up his first-day 20 with 19.
Baker and Anderson both snared two wickets, Sharp grabbing the other.
"It was a good performance, good team effort," [Craig] Baker said.
The home side also had a win first-up as teams turned pink for the carnival's annual Pink Stumps Day.
After restricting West Pennant Hills-Cherrybrook to 6-61 from their 20 overs, they chased down the required runs in 9.2 overs.
