GLEN Innes is building towards its Country Plate clash with Lower Clarence in two weeks and needs the rain to stay away from Armidale to get some match practice in against the Dumaresq Colts.
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It is also Glen’s first Connolly Cup game of the summer and a chance to make inroads into that competition as well.
It has named a handy side, despite missing some of its bowling attack.
“We’ve got a couple of bowlers out so Nick Whan will get an opportunity,” Glen captain Adrian Sippel said.
“He’s an opening bowler locally and it will be good experience for him to come into the team.
“Thomas McCarney is also back from uni and he will bolster our bowling attack.
“Unfortunately the two players we have out are bowlers so we’ll rely on Nick Lehman and Nathan Purvis to bowl a few overs in the
middle.”
The batting lineup looks quite strong but with some rain around the game could be played on a damp track.
That doesn’t sound good to the Glen boys who play most of their cricket on synthetic, especially against a young Armidale side used to those conditions.
“We don’t know much about them,” Sippel said.
“It should be a good guage of where we’re at because they’re a good side.
“Everyone will want to win the toss.
“We don’t have a lot of experience playing on turf, let alone wet turf.
“So that could be a bit of a bogy for us.”
If the game does go ahead it will be the Glen side’s last chance to play together as a team before that Country Plate game.
“We’ve got our knockout match on the 9th of December at Glen Innes on synthetic,” Sippel said.
“We’ll have our full strength side for that.
“It’s against Lower Clarence and we don’t know much about them except Walcha beat them last year.
“We’re working hard to have our best side available and playing at home on synthetic will be good for us.”
Dumaresq was well beaten in its first game but will be better for it, with several of the side playing their first district rep games.
One of the keys to turning things around will be batting their overs out.
That didn’t happen against Inverell.
“We didn’t score anywhere near enough runs,” selector Brad King said.
“We didn’t bowl that well either.”
They bowled too many extras.
“We didn’t apply enough pressure,” King said.
“In second grade you can get away with bowling four good balls and two bad balls.
“In rep those two bad ones go for four.”
That can add up over 50 overs.
DUMARESQ COLTS: Matt Jackson (capt), Corby Kliendienst, Zac Atkins, Justin McKay, Hugh Reeves, Will Frost, Hugh Reckord, Tom Armitage, Aaron Whackett, Henry Cupit, Scott Brennan, Paul Woolford.
GLEN INNES: Nathan Purvis, Peter Rajko, Nathan Levy, Adrian Sippel (capt), Nick Lehman, Joel Jackson, Scott Hodder, Ben Lonergan, Shawn Mepham, Thomas McCarney, Nick Whan.