![Tamworth will commence their Doug Walters Cup defence against New England on Sunday. Tamworth will commence their Doug Walters Cup defence against New England on Sunday.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/ingYyB85ps4jmG9t8mfsHP/4712d708-2f1d-4231-b8a8-1ffa90d62179.jpg/r0_0_1117_678_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Tamworth will take strike against northern neighbours New England on Sunday to belatedly get their quest for a fourth consecutive Doug Walters Cup underway.
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The clash was originally scheduled for November but was postponed due to the wet weather.
Tamworth over 50s captain Steve Wilson said the players are looking forward to getting back into some rep cricket.
"It will be good to get everything up and running with the Doug Walters Cup," he said.
The Magpies squad is very similar to last season's, he said, with a couple of new faces set to join after Christmas.
"There's a couple of guys that aren't available (for Sunday). Paul Lawrence, it's his birthday," Wilson said.
Lawrence, Chris Paterson and Phil Constable are not long back from the over 50s national championships in Adelaide where Constable's NSW Koalas side were champions in Division 4 and Lawrence's Emus' third in Division 5.
In what was his first time away with NSW, Lawrence was a strong contributor with both bat and ball, picking up a five wicket haul (5-38) and notching a half-century.
Constable was meanwhile consistently among the wickets for the Koalas while Paterson, who suited up for the Waratahs in Division 2, also returned with a half-century to his name.
Tamworth was well represented across the different championships with Mike Cashman and Terry Murphy (Division 3) heading to Launceston for the over 70s while Andrew Stevenson (Division 1), Olly Taylor (Division 2) and Greg Kellett (Division 3) played in Geelong at the over 60s carnival.
Sunday's game at No.1 Oval will be the first of three Doug Walters games in the space of a couple of months for the Magpies. They host Mid North Coast at the end of January and will then head to Port in mid-February to play North Coast.
The state carnival is then in late February with Division 1 in Newcastle and Divisions 2 and 3 in Armidale. Wilson said they are hopeful of being able to field two teams.
He expects New England to present a good challenge. From what he's heard they have had a few new younger players come in and have got some pretty good numbers.