It was a tough day in the middle for the Northern Inland junior sides on home soil on Sunday with all three going down to North Coast in their NSW Youth Championships clashes in Tamworth.
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The under-14s just fell short after suffering a late collapse. Chasing North Coast's 9-180 they were only four wickets down with about 40 runs to get but lost 6-31 to be bowled out for 175.
After putting themselves in a good position to win the game, coach Michael Slack-Smith said it was a bit disappointing to come so close.
In saying that he said to almost chase down 180 was a good effort, especially after they were 1-0.
Nicholas Bukovac steadied the ship and "batted well" for 33. After he was run out, Harry Lewington (24) and Logan Spinks (26) got the innings back on track and looked to be steering them towards victory but fell in quick succession.
From there the run chase fell apart, a bit of panic leading to a few false shots.
Slack-Smith thought a bit of tiredness being the end of the day also played a part.
He said it across the board it "wasn't our best performance."
"We played 30 overs I reckon of a 50 over game," he said.
"We were off for 20 with both the bat and ball."
Early on with the ball they were a bit short.
But after the first innings break they played a lot better
"We bowled a lot better and we fielded a lot better," Slack-Smith said.
That was reflected in the fact that they got four run outs.
"Sid Harvey bowled well, he was tight, and Ryan Campbell picked up two wickets closing the innings out," he said.
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The under-15s were set an even more imposing task with North Coast posting 7-242. They only really had themselves to blame though after dropping Troy Turner, who went on to make 148, six times.
Coach Mitch Woods said he was probably in his late teens the first life they gave him.
The dropped catches compounded their frustrations after they were in a really strong position having North Coast 3-6 off 10 overs.
Ed Montgomery was the pick of the bowlers with 3-31 while Tim Shields took 2-30.
Ben Livingstone then produced a captain's knock as they made 167 in reply. Picking up where he left off in their earlier games at Grafton, he hit 64 off 84.
"He batted well," Woods said.
"He was patient until he started to run out of partners."
Woods thought they were always in the hunt but "just kept losing wickets as we started to get a little partnership going".
The under-13s also chased but could only muster 111 in reply to North Coast's 7-184.
Blake Scicluna was their top-scorer with 25 while Tom Barnes made 19, Clancy McDermott 17no and Clay Hoffman 15.
Co-coach Kaleb McIlveen said the whole team are bonding together well having not played many games together.
He thought spinners Joel Blackburn and Hoffman particularly did a good job for them restricting the run rate. Blackburn claimed 2-29, while Hoffman finished with 0-23 from his eight overs with two maidens.
