The 1906-07 season opened in a promising manner with an early match in Maitland between the NSW team and a Northern District side. The NSW team was captained by Austin Diamond and contained such notable players as Monty Noble, Charlie Macartney and Albert (“Tibby”) Cotter. Unfortunately, Victor Trumper was unable to come because of a sudden illness in the family.
The Northern District side was a representative one with players from the HRDCA and from neighbouring districts: L Moore (capt), R McLean, AC Lawrie, C Irwin, F Norrie, C Onus (HRDCA); R Fawcett (Singleton); W Cameron(Upper Hunter); EL Clement and EL Waddy (Newcastle). On the Saturday H Johnston fielded as a substitute so the the Rev. EF Waddy could play on the Monday. The match resulted in a draw with NSW 287, and 8 for 272 against Northern District’s 161. In the first innings Felton Norrie took 3 for 23 and Bill Cameron 3 for 25.
In what was to be the last of the matches against Metropolitan teams brought to Maitland at Christmas by W Richardson (these visits went way back to 189697), the locals scored 236 (R Lindsay 93) and 4 for 134 to the Sydney team’s 371 (R McLean 5 for 66).
Inter-district matches against Newcastle, Singleton and Upper Hunter continued. In compliance with a request from the NSWCA a Northern District Cricket Council was formed comprising Hunter River DCA, Singleton and the Upper Hunter. This was a short-lived forerunner of the Hunter Valley Cricket Council that was to be set up in the 19’20s.
The local cricket scene, however, was very disappointing. The Annual Report lamented “the lack of interest taken by players and the non-support of the townspeople”. There were complaints about “many cases” of teams being short-handed or not turning up for matches and of play commencing long after the starting time. Some clubs also disbanded before the end of the season.
The Association attempted to promote a Wednesday Half Holiday competition, but the response was not very encouraging. Only four teams from the newly formed West End and East End Clubs competed and “the program was not carried out in its entirety”.
The financial position of the Association deteriorated. It started the season with a credit balance of E25.6s. but ended with a debit of €4.18s. To make matters worse, it was reported at the Annual Meeting that the horse that had been purchased for nine pounds for the caretaker of the Albion ground “had died a few months ago”. One bright spot was that a “mud wicket” had been put down on the Parade Oval at the Showground.