Inverell High School cricket team is in its halcyon days with a stable of some of its best players graduating at years’ end.
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They are marking the end of their school season by with entry into the NSW All-Schools knockout tournament, beginning on Tuesday at Sydney’s St Ignatius College from Riverview
Three of the state’s best public, private and the two best Catholic schools will reduce that eight to four next week with Inverell up against St Ignatius on their home ground.
Year 12 student and team captain Tom Scoble said they knew it was going to be hard work as soon as they made the top eight.
“We’ll just focus on this team and one at a time, and we don’t really know what to expect against (St Ignatius), because we haven’t seen much of them before,” Tom said.
“We expected a pretty tough draw, because this is the best of the schools in the state now. (St Ignatius), they’re the best GPS (great public school) school in the state, probably one of the best schools in Sydney, so we’ll have our work cut out for us an the rest of the schools are pretty similar to that.”
The team has been nearly undefeated to this point, with one one loss to Kirrawee in the Bathurst race for the coveted Davidson Shield in April putting them third in the state, and their success has launched them into the knockout.
Scoble said they have sharpened up their fielding, with good lessons learnt in Bathurst when they held their own but couldn’t nail down the lead over Kirrawee in their final four wickets.
They excelled in the field against Endeavour for the third-place play-off.
“We scored about 250 and bottom half about 120, but we were on top of them the whole time and everyone was up in the field, so it’s definitely improved,” he said.
“I guess across an off-season a lot can change, so once again, we really don’t know what to expect.”
“Hopefully our training paid off for us.”
Tom said he would pass on words of encouragement to the players who might feel jitters on the day, and coach Chris Drake believed that level of leadership has inspired an ethos of mateship and formed a tight-knit team.
“They support each other and that’s been a big benefit is that their each willing to do an extra bit of hard work on the field,” he said.
“That team spirit is probably what has carried us through some close games in the season.”
Year 12 Inverell vice-captain Sage Cook was philosophical about the tail end of his high school cricket career. “I’d rather be in this position and leaving that not be in this position and leaving,” he grinned.
“At least we still get to play cricket with our mates, for the school.”