The Ardlethan Barellan District Cricket Association’s 2026/27 season got underway last Saturday with three of the four top teams from last year stamping their mark early in the season. There were also some great individual performances displayed across the grounds. The Narrandera Carpheads were one of those teams that got off to a flier in the opening round against the newcomers to the league, the Coolamon Hotel side. The Carpheads (3/73) defeated the Coolamon Hotel (10/69) team by seven wickets at Coolamon. Winning the toss, the Carpheads elected to bowl first. The Carpheads’ opening bowlers, Captain Mark Tilyard (2/9 off 5 overs) and Ross Durnan (2/15 off 4 overs) started strongly with both taking multiple wickets. “Coolamon were struggling at 5/26 when Bryce Hetherington came on to bowl and took two wickets with his first two balls to really put the newcomers on the back foot at 7/26,” Tilyard said. Hetherington took 3/12 during his three-over spell, while Jed Scott’s five-over spell resulted in him finishing with 2/4. Nick Perram starred with the bat, finishing as the Carpheads’ highest run scorer on 38 not out. “Our young wicketkeeper Nick Perram eased us over the line as we convincingly chased down the total to record a seven-wicket win off 16.3 overs,” Tilyard said. In the other games, the Ardlethan-Beckom Yabbies (10/52) defeated Barellan (10/49), Ganmain (10/120) defeated the Coolamon Crickets (10/119) and Kamarah (10/188) beat the Mirrool Rosellas (10/60). In round 2 on Saturday, the Carpheads will host the other Coolamon side, the Coolamon Crickets, a team looking for their first win of the season.
