Quirindi's annual Super 8's Cricket Carnival had a bit of everything on the weekend - record rainfall, heat and some close tussles.
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Six sides battled it for the honours in, at times, challenging conditions, with newcomers Gorgeous George and Narrabri joining carnival regulars Old Fashioned, Burgo's, The Grubs and the rebranded Mt Druitt Dockers.
The pool rounds saw a high calibre of cricket played with many games coming down the the last overs and a super over required to split Burgo's and Old Fashioned in their clash.
Storms overnight on both Friday and Saturday meant the first and last rounds of the regular pool matches were abandoned to allow the pitches to dry.
The first semi-final pitted the Dockers against Old Fashioned in what proved to be a hard fought affair with Nick Hird striking the winning runs with two balls to spare.
An exceptional spell of off-spin from Aaron King saw him nab four quick wickets to push the game to the death but the experienced Old Fashioned line-up prevailed.
The second semi-final saw Gorgeous George up against an in-form Grubs outfit.
Batting first Gorgeous George didn't waste any time going after The Grubs bowling attack, some creative batting enabling them to set a defendable total.
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However The Grubs were able to chase the runs with a couple of overs in hand.
They then started the decider strongly against the wiley Old Fashioned bowlers with Lochie Robinson and Regan Hughes retiring early in the innings. Cameo performances from James Maxwell (22) and Cody Beresford (25) helped them to a respectable total of 5-127.
In reply Old Fashioned looked wobbly losing in-form opener Brendon Matthews for a duck to the bowling of Robinson in the second over.
From there though the run-rate ticked along with solid batting performances from Dave McVicar (15) and Anthony Cooper (30 ret.).
A few quick wickets sent a bit of a scare through the Old Fashioned camp, but the calmer heads in the tail prevailed with good contributions from Craig Burke (21), Hird (28) and Ryan Croucher (21) seeing them home with one over to spare.
The best bowling performer of the weekend award went to King with seven wickets. Runner-up was shared between Hird and Super 8's newcomer Jack Goodwin with five scalps a piece.
Matthews produced the best performance of the weekend with the bat with a well fought 131 on Saturday. Robinson (118), Jason Lobsey (91) and Charlie Simkin (96) also had notable knocks.