He hasn’t had a lot of opportunities to showcase his full bag of tricks but Nathan Millar is proving a handy recruit for Albion.
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The 26-year old has been their top-scorer in his last two games, hitting 32 the penultimate round before Christmas and 78 last Saturday.
His deeds with the bat followed returns of 3-8 and 2-18 in his first two games.
A carpenter by trade, Millar moved to town from Kempsey last April.
“My partner, she’s a paramedic at Boggabri so we shifted out there,” he said.
A keen cricketer, how he ended up at Albion is “a long story”. As he explained it, his brother lives next door to one of the second grade players’ sisters in Bathurst. He got talking to her, she told her brother, and he got in contact with Millar.
“It’s been good,” he said. “Other than the heat.”
It has been “pretty woeful”. Saturday is expected to be another scorcher with the mercury set to hit the 40s.
Fortunately, Albion only have one more wicket to claim first innings points against Mornington.
They are 9-54 in reply to Albion’s 3(dec)-186.
“It would have been good to knock them over on the first day,” Millar said.
“[But] that’s the way cricket goes. It’s an unpredictable game.”
Millar is a big reason they are in such a commanding position.
“It was actually the first chance I’ve had to really show [captain] Andy [Mack] and the boys that I can do a bit more than bowling,” Millar said. “It was quite enjoyable.”
It was only his third bat for the season. His first game he was next in only for the second week to be washed out.
Then he was away for the second week the next game.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been able to score some runs,” he said.
He was given a couple of lives, albeit not easy ones. But that is the way with cricket, sometimes you get the luck, sometimes you don’t.
Millar has also signed on for the Gunnedah Premier League, and will play for Albion team-mate James Mack’s Imperial Hotel Tigers.
“Being my first year out here, I thought it would be good to give it a crack,” he said.
He has a bit of experience playing Twenty20 in Townsville, and is looking forward to the social side of it and getting to know a few more people.
In the other game, Kookaburras need another 98 runs to avoid being outrighted by Court House.
