Serious doubts were again raised at the start of the 1908-09 season about the Association’s future. At the Annual Meeting a lot of consideration was given to suspending the Association’s operations. However, at an adjourned meeting it was decided to continue with the competitions, as a number of additional affiliation applications had been received.
When the competition did get under way, there were only three teams in the senior competition Northern Division, Western Division and East Maitland. The competition ended up being “practically a farce” as East Maitland withdrew after the first match on “a matter of Club dignity”.
In one of the few senior competition matches played, Bob Lindsay scored another double century when he hit up 226 for Northern Division in a match on the Albion ground against Western Division on January 16 and 23 1909. His innings included 28 fours and 3 sixes and was described as “a brilliant exhibition of all round cricket”.
A junior competition with eight teams, including Mulbring, Hinton, Tarro, Buchanan and Millers Forest was run but also “ended unsatisfactorily”.
The Annual Report stated that it was a “most disappointing season from every point of view” an(l blamed the cricketers themselves for the position of affairs – “the majority of whom take but little interest in the game and appear to be quite indifferent as •to whether they play”. There were also continued complaints about matches rarely starting on time, with the “town teams” being the “greatest offenders”.
On the representative side, “considerable difficulty was experienced in getting teams for representative matches” and the Association representative teams suffered defeat in all matches.