Having battled through three tough matches in the qualifying rounds to remain unbeaten, the Kangaroos took on North City in the final and turned in a near faultless display to claim the crown by eight wickets.

Hall captained the side while Mitchell was one of two vice-captains, the former taking 1-2 off four overs in the decider, while Mitchell took the new ball and bagged 1-7 off 4.2 as North City were dismissed for just 89.

Western Riverina were never in any danger of falling short, and were steered home by Riverina player Dean Bennett (33) while Hall (two not out) was at the crease when his side claimed the title.

“It was just a great week. It was hard because the players didn’t know much about each other, but basically Western and Riverina picked their best nine players each, whittled it down to six each and then added one extra from Western,” Bathurst-based coach Garth Dean explained.

“We tried to arrange a trial and some training days, the trial didn’t happen because of logistics. We just couldn’t get the two groups together at any stage.

“Two weeks prior to the tournament the Western players were supposed to train in Orange, but it belted down rain so we ended up training in the Riawena Oval clubhouse of all places.

“Eventually we turned up a day early in Dubbo and the kids finally got to meet each other and then they were into it after the players were given their roles in the team.”

The Kangaroos opened with a tough win over the South City Sharks, in which Mitchell and Cant both took two wickets in South City’s innings of 126 all-out.

Hall was run-out for three in the run-chase, but Mitchell (25 not out) and Cant (20) both played pivotal roles in a tight run-chase that finished with the Kangaroos winning with three wickets and a couple of overs to spare.

In round two Hall was the star, making 27 out of his team’s total of 169 all-out, and picking up two wickets to help curtail a threatening run chase by West City, who got within seven of their target when their last wicket fell.

All three Bathurst players had an important job in the third-round win over the South Coast Marlins, starting with Mitchell who took a wicket in the Marlins’ imposing score of 9-187.

Hall helped get his side going in the chase with 19, before a match-defining stand between Mitchell and Cant that yielded 50 for the fifth wicket.

Cant fell for 12 but Mitchell went on to finish unbeaten on 49 as they scraped across the line with three balls to spare.

“All three of the local boys batted and bowled well across the week. They all contributed at important times to the victories,” Dean said.

“In that third game Ben Cant made a really important 12. He faced a kid who was reportedly the quickest in the state for that age group and handled him quite easily.

“Ben Mitchell’s runs came off about 40 balls and got us across the line. All three of them now will go into the Mitchell and Western programs across the off-season and keep working pretty hard.”

Bathurst player Nick Broes was the only local representative in the under 14s version of the tournament, and after getting a start on day one with 18 against South City, he had a tougher time of it in the next two games, making three and four.

Western Riverina finished sixth in that competition.