Montgomery (left) was one of only two bowlers at the tournament to take five wickets in a match, with the other being his teammate Hayden Ensbey, who got five wickets for as many runs in the final game of the tournament. Ensbey finished the tournament’s top wicket taker, with Montgomery equal second. 

Both played for the Northern Razorbacks, a combined team of the Central North and North Coastal representative regions, which claimed two wins and lost two games.

The team began its campaign last Monday with a victory over East City Stallions. Set 212 to win, the Sydney side was dismissed for 96, with Montgomery picking up 1/11 of four overs. 

Tuesday saw the Razorbacks go down to North City Silverbacks who chased down their target of 140 with two wickets and two overs to spare. Montgomery took another wicket in that game, conceding 17 runs from six overs. 

But it was the third match in which the Moree boy shone, taking five wickets for just 14 runs off 7.4 overs to dismiss the New Coast Stingrays for 120. Despite his heroics with the ball, the North Coast/Newcastle combined team won the game, bowling out the Razorbacks for 93. 

Montgomery was wicketless in the final match, with economical figures of 0/7 off four. Ensbey ran rampant at the other end to dismiss West City Scorpions for just 48 in response to the Razorbacks’ 8/136. 

Montgomery said he was happy with his performance at the tournament, but that there was room for improvement with the bat. 

Coming in at number eight in the first game, he picked up eight wickets. He was dismissed for a duck in the second and was caught on the boundary for nine runs in the third game.

“In the last game though, they sent me in at six and told me just to go out and block so we could see out the overs,” he said. “I went in with 36 overs to go and was dismissed with six overs to go and we won the match, so I did my job that day.”

With the ball, Montgomery more than did his job. His tournament figures were seven wickets for 49 runs off 21.4 overs at an average of seven. Ensbey picked up 10 wickets for an average of 5.3 while Western City Scorpions’ Yuvraj Sharma picked up seven wickets as well but did so for two fewer runs than Montgomery in 2.4 less overs, so had an average of 6.71.

Western Riverina won the tournament, chasing down North City Silverbacks’ 89 for the loss of just two wickets. 

Montgomery said the highlight of the tournament was the chance to visit Narromine, the hometown of Glenn McGrath. With figures like those he picked up in Dubbo, young Jack looks like he’s cut from similar cloth to his cricketing hero.