THE FINALS - 4th Grade v Norths, 25th /26th March 1995

Armidale Waratahs (The Tahs) | April 06, 2026

After a brilliant season and a narrow defeat of their rival for the Final, Norths, Waratahs were embarrassed by a dreadful showing in the major semi-final against the same side, losing by 249 runs - the bowlers flogged and their batsmen blown away. A narrow 12 runs escape in the Preliminary FInal had got them another shot at the title they had believed was theirs since Christmas.

Wicketkeeper batsman Scott Murphy ( had been superb, with more than five hundred runs for the season at over 50. Allrounder Joe Cairns had more than 400 runs and 32 wickets and the evergreen Graham Patterson made more than 300 runs in his 57th trip around the sun. The bowling was honest without being threatening, with Cairns bowling more than twice as many overs - 176 of them - than the rest.

There is no scorecard available for the match but from anecdotal reports, it was Cairns, on the Saturday and Murphy, on the Sunday, that dominated Norths, both with outstanding individual performance. Norths, the run gluttons of the season, were 1-94 at one stage of their innings but Cairns took seven and shot them down. Waratahs were in trouble from the start until Murphy played probably one of the greatest Waratahs innings in any Final, in any grade, smashing a century in the reply while wickets fell and securing a two wicket victory. His final tally of 111 was 61% of the team’s score. His season tally of 623 runs @ 56.6 placed him only 48 runs off the record for runs in a 4th grade season. He also made 20 wicketkeeping dismissals.

Waratahs v Norths - 4th Grade, 25th/26th March 1995

Norths 169 (Joe Cairns 7-48) lost to Waratahs 8-181 (Scott Murphy 111)