The beginning of the Orange District Cricket Association season famously tends to bring rain and while this summer was an anomaly, the Western NSW Junior Cricket Carnivals managed to do it anyway with Sunday's short downfall forcing a delayed start to Monday's opening day.
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It wasn't enough to force any of the under-13 tournament's first-up games to be abandoned though - it wasn't enough in any sense, really - and the likes of Penrith, Parramatta 1, South Coast and Dubbo all stamped their authority on this summer's edition of the tournament on Monday.
Penrith and Parramatta 1 knocked off Orange and Orange Barbarians by eight and 10 wickets respectively while South Coast beat Bankstown, Dubbo prevailed over Blacktown Gold.
In the opening day's two most-exciting games though, Mitchell Cricket Council edged out North West Sydney while the Sydney Invitational XI produced a great fightback to down the North Shore.
Mitchell's first-up win came by way of a solitary wicket in a low-scoring affair at Jack Brabham 4.
Cooper Stephen took remarkable figures of 4-1 as the Black Caps skittled their metropolitan rivals for 120 in just 18 overs, with Daman Brar contributing an unbeaten 76 from just 53 balls.
Mitchell's chase was anything but fluent or convincing as they lost wickets consistently but with Connor Brown (23) top scoring and Ruben Newton (14), Dan Ritchie (16) and Fionn Hale (18) contributing valuable lower order runs they scraped home nine down.
North Shore's Henry Riseborough (4-20) struck early to leave the Sydney Invitational XI reeling at 3-21 early in the piece at Riawena Oval but the latter side fought back, eventually posting 237 thanks to Nikhi Hemadri (50), Josh Robson (53 retired not out) and Charan Madala (49 not out).
It didn't look like it was going to be enough though as Thomas Cullen (74) and Venkata Sandugula (64) cruised in a 135-run second-wicket stand to push their side to 152, after coming together at 1-17.
But in snaring the former's scalp Aryan Roy (5-26) sparked a monumental collapse to the tune of 6-25, and while Sandugula toughed it out in a bid to get his side home he was the sixth of those wickets to fall.
North Shore eventually fell short, finishing 8-181.
The result from Parramatta 2's clash with Radford College wasn't available at time of publication, nor was the result of Inner West Harbour's game against Blacktown Gold.
All games on Tuesday's second day begin at 9am, the draw was scheduled to be released on Monday.
Tuesday evening's City versus Country Twenty20 clash at Wade Park will begin with a minute's silence in honour of Harry Greenhalgh, and there will also be collection buckets around the ground to help raise money in support of the bushfire appeal.
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Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
