North dismantled by discipline as North-West claim bragging rights

Losing by 109 runs in the 40-over match, CN recovered after a strong start with the bat from CNW, keeping the score to 5-184 at the end of the innings when "it looked like they were going to score over 200", according to captain Sophie Parkin.

In reply, they were unable to build any partnerships as they collapsed to 75 all out.

Winning the toss and batting first, CNW went one-down early as Parkin trapped Sharlee Stebbings lbw in the opening over, before Devonport duo Claire Alexander (64 off 108) and Martina Steven (57 off 66) combined for an 108-run partnership.

CNW skipper Georgia King was full of praise for how her top order set up the win.

"Our first goal was to bat out the 40 overs and we just had to build a partnership of 50-plus, and the girls did that really well and showed their strengths," she said.

But CN were able to restrict the runs from there with Riverside Welsh import Georgia Munro claiming the run-out of Alexander before taking out King's pegs and getting Kalea Leary caught-out.

The only multiple wicket-taker for CN, Munro finished with 2-27 from eight overs.

From there it was all CNW, with only South Launceston's Caitlyn Webster and extras accumulating a double-figure tally as wickets fell in clumps.

Wynyard's Sophia Field (3-17 off seven) and Devonport's Chloe Casey (3-8 off four) were chief destroyers for CNW, with CN's highest partnership during the innings 17 for the second wicket.

"We just made sure we were bowling full and straight, making sure we've got our good bowlers against their good batters," King said.

"We attacked the stumps really well and then we tried to bring on a bit of youth at the end and they performed really well."

With both teams fielding a youthful and inexperienced line-up for the one-off contest, the respective captains reflected on what they hoped they learned from the contest.

"It's really good for the young ones to experience especially the longer format cricket, but it'd be nice to get a few more games in," King said.

"It's finding the time and just pushing the youth to want to play more cricket and keep them interested."

Parkin added: "It's about learning how to take your time when you're batting and when you're bowling setting your fields correctly, but I hope they all had fun and took something out of today.

"It was good to come together as all four clubs and play, it's probably more just about the longer format and how to go about it really because it's very different to the Twenty20 game."

With more representative games added to the calendar in previous seasons, Parkin explained that the Greater Northern Raiders' women's T20 final meant that there was only time for one game this time around, and that the clash with the Party in the Paddock music festival had limited availability.

"I think they're really going to make an effort to make it three games next year, because it is a privilege to represent Cricket North," she said.

"Hopefully next year there will be two or three games instead of just the one."