THE best junior female cricketers in the country bowled into town on Sunday as Tamworth plays host to the Country Womens U15 and U18 Cricket Championships.
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The U15s kicked the tournament off on Saturday as eight teams battled the wet conditions to play three games of Twenty20 in two pools of four before the final gets played on Monday at 1.30pm.
The wet conditions have forced the girls on to synthetic wickets, although carnival convener Bruce Whitehouse said that it hasn’t detracted from some great early games.
Hosts Central North had their opening match against Western reduced to 14 overs after Riverside 9 proved too wet, although the girls came away with an outstanding result to get on the front foot on the opening day.
Western battled to get runs on the board under the pressure of some quality line and length bowling from the hosts to finish at 4-58.
In reply Lara Graham picked up where she left off last season, smashing 22 as the side cruised to 1-60 and the win before taking on Southern in their second match.
In one of the other games Central Coast’s Sophie Shelley returned tournament best figures of 5-12 as they rattled Riverina in the opener.
“There has been some fantastic matches already and some great individual and team efforts like that 5-12,” Whitehouse said.
“Tamworth have done a great job to get us on and hopefully we get some more sun as the week continues.”
The U15s will finish up with the round of finals on Monday afternoon before the U18 girls hit the wickets on Tuesday.
At this stage they too will be playing on the synthetic wickets, and once again Whitehouse is expecting some excellent cricket from some of the best players in the country.
Meanwhile the Tamworth Junior Cricket Association also launched themselves into Summer by contracting Brendan Lyon to take the junior representative squads and put them through a few clinics and coaching sessions at William Cowper.
The brother of test spinner Nathan Lyon is regarded as one of the best junior coaches and comes to the region every season with a variety of camps and clinics for all ages and skill levels.