CENTRAL North Zone junior selectors believe they will come up with two strong Bradman and Kookaburra Cup teams after the second of three trials were played in Tamworth on Sunday.
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Northern Inland won both Under 14 and 16 trials at Riverside on Sunday, with the final trial to be played at Scone on Sunday, November 23.
In the Under 16 trial at Dick Edwards Oval, Northern Inland bundled Hunter Valley out for 110 and replied with 2-111 after Moree’s Scott Palombo (46no) and Narrabri’s Ryan Meppem (24no) put on 61 for the third wicket.
Earlier, Lachlan Davidson (4-15), Meppem (2-20), Liam Dunn (2-15), Jaidon Tasker (1-10) and Paddy Montgomery (1-16) had crashed through the Hunter Valley batting lineup.
In the Under 14 trial at Riverside 2, Hunter Valley made 149 but Northern Inland, after being 6-54 at one stage, replied with 6-150 for a four wicket win.
Jacob Page’s fine 73 held his Hunter side together after it had had won the toss and batted.
They were in trouble early when opener Logan Smith (2) was dismissed in the fifth over.
Hayden Baker buoyed his Northern Inland teammates further by taking two wickets in quick succession and this, plus a run-out just before drinks, gave Northern Inland the upper hand.
Northern Inland took regular wickets after drinks as Page lost seven partners before being joined by allrounder Aiden Bills (25).
They shared a 46-run eighth wicket partnership.
Page was ninth man out when he became one of James Austin’s three scalps.
Austin (3-23) returned the best bowling figures for Northern Inland with Baker (2-7) providing good support along with Henry Sindel (1-33), Conrad George (1-19) and Kieran Dennis (1-8).
Rex Greaves (2-18), Callum Gabriel (2-12) and Josh Copper (1-25) all combined to have Northern Inland 6-54 in its run chase.
Henry Smith (48no) and Sindel (45no) then combined with a brilliant 96-run stand.
They came together in the 19th over, batting sensibly and putting together a match-winning partnership.
The four sides will match up again at Scone, CNZ’s Tony Meppem said.
His plan to change the one-day trial into a three-game series gives all the young hopefuls a better chance to showcase their wares and for the selectors to pick the best side.
“It’s just a better way of giving the boys a chance to show us what they can do,” Meppem said.
“We can go through all the stats from the three games too and make better selections.”
Meppem is one of the coaches of the CNZ Bradman Cup (Under 6) side as well.
“I think we are going to have a very strong Bradman Cup side too,” he said
“I’ll be very surprised if they don’t go well.
“We play Southern in our first game so we’ll need to be at our best from the start.
“They have some very good young players from last year’s CHS team.”
The Bradman Cup is being hosted by Central North Zone at Singleton and Maitland in the New Year while the Kookaburra Cup Under 14 Country Championships will be played from January 5 at Newcastle.
