Now in its 19th year, the Annual Nitmiluk Cricket Cup was played over the weekend of October 30/31 in a Super 6's Format (5 over games- 6 players) at the Peter Short Oval in Katherine.

Six teams from across the Territory converged into Katherine on Friday evening in preparation for this year's event: Ceylon Warriors, Kings, United, Top End Thunder, Katherine Bulls and Mixed Relations.

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The games kicked off at 9am on Saturday morning and ran throughout the day in excessive heat. With dark clouds hovering, rain interrupted the event and closed the day around 3pm.

On Sunday with games commencing, heavy rain again interrupted in the middle of the day forcing the coordinators to change the format of the semi finals and grand finals.

It was decided to run the top four teams in a semi final play off with the other two sides playing off for the Nitmiluk Cup.

Nitmiluk (TJ Tilley) Shield:

First Semi's was played between Top End Thunder and the Ceylon Warriors- The warriors batted first setting a score of 59..The Thunder came out and had a bit of success getting Shannon Smith early on in the run chase... Good steady batting by Allan Trindle kept the score ticking over getting his team the Thunders over the line making the Thunders first grand final appearance.

Second Semi Finals was played against the two Darwin team of The United and The Kings. United blasted their way to a huge score of 80, making it difficult for the Kings to chase down. United blast themselves in to Nitmiluk Shield Grand Final with a bang and take on favourite status.

Grand Final- TJ Tilley Shield- saw The United come out with great batting from Dinesh, saw his team hit a 79 run chase for the Top End Thunder team. Top End Thunder had a run of early wickets but again steady batting from Alan Trindle saw the Thunders equal the run chase of 79 on the last ball of their innings forcing a Super Over. The Thunder faced off and with good batting by Shannon Smith saw the team reach 18 runs in their Super Over. United came to the crease with in form batters of Dinesh and captain Prady. With Dinesh belting a big six off his 2nd ball gave hope to the United team, he got trapped LBW the next ball. United continued to score and required four runs on the last ball, BUT, could only manage two giving the Top End Thunder their very first Nitmiluk ( TJ Tilley) Shield.

Nitmiluk Cup Grand Final:

Nitmiluk Cup was played out between two local teams - Katherine Bulls Cricket team and Mixed Relations. Bulls took to the crease with the bat, hoping to set up their opposition chasing a good score. Good bowling from the Mixed Relation bowlers kept them to a score of only 36 with the Bulls only hitting one four boundary in their innings..

Mixed Relations opened slowly with Kiel Shardlow and Lewis Lampton due to good bowling from The Bulls Bowlers. Lewis starting finding the boundaries in the 2nd over with 3 huge sixes, going over the fence and Kiel hitting another six moving the score along to reach their target in just 2.5 overs.

A great weekend was had by all who participated and all who came to watch.

Sponsors and Supporters are always required to run an event like this and thank you's go out to: NT Cricket - Staff Support, General Coordination of the event; Katherine Cricket - Darrell Lee and Leah Burch- General Coordination, Scoring, Umpiring ; NO MORE Program- Marcus Rosas- General Coordination, Umpiring; Katherine Tennis Courts- Continued Support of this event ; Katherine Town Council- Facilities availability; and all the individual team sponsors

A Big thank you to all teams for coming and we now look to all our upcoming remote cricket carnivals to be held in: Borroloola - The Barra Cup - 13-14 November, 2021; Timber Creek - The Dingo Cup - 27-28 November, 2021; Alice Springs- The Imparja Cup - 14-19 February, 2022.

Open to all men, women and workplace teams....get your team organised and we're hoping to see you there.

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