The second iteration of the Dubbo Premier League kicked off on the weekend, with teams from across Dubbo competing in the T20 competition's first round match-ups.
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The event was opened up by representatives from sponsor Brett Harvey Constructions and Western NSW Cricket Manager Matt Ellis, who were thanked by organisers for their contributions to the competition's second year.
The guests of honour helped 'make all this possible' according to organiser and Dubbo Rhinos player Sanu Joy, but there were plenty of community members and volunteers on hand on the day, providing food, drinks and live entertainment while the games were being played.
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Joy also thanked the Orana Regional United Mayalee Association, ORUMA, for their assistance in bringing the game back for another year.
"They've been supporting us very openly and without them it wouldn't be possible for us to run this."
While the competition draws on cricketing talent from east of the blue mountains, it was a local derby during the competition's opening rounds, with newly invited local team Newtown competing against last year's Dubbo Lions, Markhors and Royal Challengers.
The competition opened with a clash between The Dubbo Markhors and the Dubbo Lions, with the Markhors electing to bat first, yet falling early in the Lion's batting order due to a emphatic performance by Gayan Loku (43) and Buddika Buddika (15).
The Lions totalled up 76/1, with the Markhors falling for 73 runs for ten wickets.
The second round involved the competition's newcomers, Newtown, who eliminated the Dubbo Royal Challengers after electing to bat first and putting up an early century with first-up batsman Chris Newbold (59) on the way to a Newtown total of 171.
The Royal Challengers put up a respectable 132, in large part thanks to Vivek Patel (32) and Bhupinder Singh (32), but were unable to close the gap.
The second day of competition concluded with both winning teams facing off in the competition's first semi-final.
Newtown chose to bat first, with Dale Smith (39) putting up his side's biggest score en-route to a 132/9 total.
Gayan Loku (27) attempted another winning effort in his opening spot in the Lions batting order, but fell short of his earlier efforts during the day and was bowled out by Mitchel Russo.
The Lions fought back, but were unable to keep pace with their rivals, ending at 80/10.
Newtown has now booked a spot in the final and will face off with the winner of next weekend's rounds of competition, which will feature last year's winners the Dubbo Rhinos taking on Penrith's Kairali Thunders and an opening round match between the Wyong Warriors and Newcastle Hunters.
"There'll be some really good cricket being played," Joy said of his side's prospective match-ups.
"We've got people from all over coming to play, I'm really excited, we've been practicing quite a bit and the Rhinos are all very excited to keep in the tournament, we'll be matched up mostly with the teams outside of Dubbo, which is interesting."
The Rhinos took out last year's competition after defeating the Dubbo Markhors and are optimistic about returning to the grand final again.
"We were definitely proud to win last year, beating teams from Penrith, Wyong and Newcastle, was really good and having them come back to show off their cricket skills again is exciting," Joy said.
"We're hoping to give them a tough time again, we were very proud of the achievement last year."
