Northern Inland under 15s coach Damian Henry has lauded the way they "just keep fighting" as they eye a second NSW Youth Championships country title in three years.
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The Bolters will face CAW Murray for the 2023-24 season silverware after finishing on top of the northern pool standings.
The date for the decider is still to be confirmed but Henry expects it will be probably be sometime towards the end of the season factoring in that they have to wait for the Sydney competition to wrap up with the winner of the the Bolters/CAW Murray game to then take on the best from Sydney for the title of state champions.
The Bolters have been one of the form sides since the concept was introduced.
Two seasons ago they were crowned country champions for the under 13s division. Back then there was no final, it was just first past the post and all the sides were combined.
Then last season they were pipped by Central Coast to be the northern representatives in the final.
It made this year's result all the sweeter with the Bolters getting through on bonus points ahead of Central Coast after both sides were undefeated.
Unfortunately they didn't actually get to play each other with the final two days of the carnival in Tamworth washed out.
Henry said the boys were disappointed to miss out on the last two games, especially the Central Coast one. They had really set themselves for that game.
"But as I said to the boys, we finish on top and we go to Sydney as a reward of playing some good cricket early on and getting a couple of bonus points," he said.
Maintaining pretty much the same side all the way through, on top of being a talented bunch of cricketers, one of the secrets to their success is the way they pull together.
They are "a team that just works together".
"And they don't rely on one or two people, they all perform and that's what they did over the carnival," Henry said.
"Someone always stood up at different times."
Be that individually or as a batting or bowling cohort.
For instance on the first day of the carnival in Tamworth it was the batters that got them out of trouble. The following game it was the bowlers that came to the rescue.
"They just keep on fighting," he said.
"They get themselves into trouble and then just get themselves out of trouble."
"That Twenty20 game we played here against Lake Macquarie, we got ourselves into so much trouble batting, it was just horrible (they lost 5-16 at one stage).
"But they just hung in there and got themselves a score that was good enough to get halfway there and then the bowlers just did the job."
For the Tamworth contingent of the side and their fellow Tamworth juniors the focus now switches to the annual January carnivals.
Across the next few weeks the different age sides will disperse to Orange, Newcastle, Lismore, Ballina and Taree.
