This year eight teams will be competing in the fast-paced competition, just up on last year’s numbers.

Teams include defending premiers Camurra Crows, Services Colts Cricket Club, Golf Club Cricket Club, Victoria Hotel Vikings, Weebolla Bulls, Agri Storage and Logistics, and new teams Rake Ups and Balcony Boys.

Thanks to the new turf wicket, this year all four games will be able to be played at once, instead of having a late game at 3pm – often the hottest time of the day.

With temperatures set to reach 43 degrees on Saturday, cricketers will be in for a challenging start to the competition.

Moree and District Cricket Association president Glen Holland said the Twenty20 competition is more popular than the 40-over competition.

“This is the fun half of the season, it’s a bit more relaxed,” he said.

“Although dress codes and codes of conduct are still in place.”

There will be 12 rounds of the round robin competition, with finals to be played on March 31.

Draw for round one:

All games to start at 1pm.

Moree’s representative side will also be playing on Sunday with a match against Pilliga in Narrabri.

This will be Moree’s first and final match of the MA Connolly Cup, with their previous two matches against Gunnedah and Tamworth washed out.

“We’re undefeated so far, at least that’s what we’ve been saying,” Holland joked.

Having not played a rep game yet this season, Holland said it’ll be interesting to see how Moree goes against Pilliga.

“We’ve picked a young side, we’ve got some younger players who were willing to travel when we needed,” he said.

“We’re hoping for the best, It’ll be a new learning curve and experience for us to start again.”

This will be the final game of qualifying rounds. 

The winner of the Connolly Cup will then go on to play the winner of the eastern division competition.