Adam Jones has captained Bective East for so long he is not sure for how long - 10 years, probably more. But in his time in charge he can’t recall the side losing five influential players at once … until now.
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The Bulls will go into their one-dayer against undefeated West Tamworth at Riverside 1 on Saturday without Gerhard Labuschagne, Paddy Montgomery, Coby Cornish, James Haling and AJ Pretorius. They will be absent for either rep cricket or personal commitments.
Jones has promoted several second-graders to replace them including father and son Chris and Luke Paterson.
“Now and then you obviously get a couple of players out here and there but not five,” he said. “And it will be even worse for us on Sunday. We’ll have seven or eight players out for the Twenty20 games.
“We’re gonna have a very different side over the weekend that we could possibly have.”
Jones believes this may be the first time the Patersons have played in first-grade together.
Chris will likely open the batting against Wests while Luke is an allrounder who bats in the middle order and bowls off-spin.
The Bulls are coming off a loss to Old Boys, and Wests have won their opening two matches of the season including a last-start defeat of South Tamworth.
Jones said: “Wests will obviously be the favourites and we’re the underdogs by a long way. But you never know.”
“Everyone playing in our team on the weekend has played a lot of cricket in their life.”