South Tamworth allrounder Sam McHugh grabbed a wicket both days for South Tamworth and then in his Tamworth debut against Gunnedah on Sunday. Here he clips this delivery to mid wicket as West Tamworth keeper Matt Kent looks on. Photo: Grant Robertson 131012GRC26
GUNNEDAH will regroup this week and aim for a better showing in next Sunday’s Country Shield clash with Tamworth Gold after its horror War Veterans Cup opener on Sunday.
With 12 players already unavailable, Gunnedah suffered further withdrawals in the 24 hours leading up to the game and went on to lose by 10 wickets to Tamworth.
Losing Ben Middlebrook to injury on Saturday was a big blow for Gunnedah and the other late changes only made it harder.
Captain Troy Sands said he hopes to have a better preparation for next week’s SCG Shield game against what is essentially a Tamworth second XI, also at Wolseley Park.
“The team wasn’t decided until late Friday and we had three or four changes after that,” he said.
“Hopefully next week a few blokes will have some more cricket under their belts and we’ll have a more settled side and maybe fit in a trainingsession.
“Ben will be struggling for next week so that’s a loss but Cameron (Milne) batted well, made 50-odd and batted for 40 overs.
“He held an end up and you need the openers to do that.
“We batted out our overs, which is what we set out to do.
“That’s a positive.”
It was also a good chance to blood some new players.
“We gave some guys a bowl who wouldn’t bowl generally,” Sands said.
“So we got to have a look at them.”
Tamworth also had some new faces in its side.
The likes of Leo Steyn, Sam McHugh and Ben Semmler made the most of their chance and should get the call for future games, whether they be for the War Vets Cup side or one of the Country Cup/Shield teams.
“A few guys have put their hands up for the next few games,” Tamworth captain Simon Norvill said.
“We’ve got a few to come back but these guys have given themselves every chance of playing in future games.”
