TAMWORTH’S Rhiannon Graham is going to spin up a storm at the national under 15s women’s championships in Sydney next week.
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That’s the plan anyway.
Along with fellow locals Kiarni Cornish from Narrabri and Inverell twins Kate and Sarah Lennon, the Tamworth leg-spin bowler has been invited to play for the ACT at the championships.
Claire Lennon has also been called up as a reserve.
After representing NSW Country against City, in which Country managed one win from three games, Rhiannon answered the call for the ACT and will travel to Canberra for a training camp before the titles begin.
Following those two days with her ACT teammates, the first game of the championships for Rhiannon, Kiarni and the Lennon girls will be against Victoria.
The ACT then tackles Western Australia and NSW to complete the first half of the week-long event.
That game against NSW will be an interesting one.
The 14-year-old McCarthy Catholic College student won’t hold back against some of her NSW Country teammates.
“We know all of them,” she said.
“A lot of the NSW Country girls are playing for NSW.
“We play two twenty20s, some 40-over games and we play against all the other states.”
The final will be on December 4 and the local contingent in the ACT side would love to be there.
Rhiannon has been a regular in Tamworth rep sides for a few years now.
She plays in the Tamworth Blue U14s team in the Hunter Valley competition this season and represented Central North U15s at the Country Championships at Dubbo, where she earned her Country U15s call-up.
“I play for the Tamworth rep side and I play with McCarthy on Saturdays,” she said.
“I’ve played (rep) every year, since under 12s.”
Like many female players, Rhiannon got involved because she has family who play the game.
And once she started she was roped into one of the trickiest specialities in the game – bowling leggies.
“I went to a North West camp,” she said.
“I wasn’t that good at bowling pace so they got me to try bowling leg spin.”
She also bats in the middle or lower order but her main focus will be getting plenty of wickets in Sydney.
The Year Nine student also hopes to make the Combined Catholic Colleges team in the near future and continue making Central North, Country and other rep honours.
