After looking like there might not even be a competition at one stage, the return of a few familiar faces to the pitch has the season shaping up to be a competitive one.
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The season was in danger of being scrapped when the annual general meeting in May was cancelled and a new board was unable to be elected. But at the 11th hour a new board was formed with Brad Gander stepping up as president, James Mack taking on the secretary role and Lachlan King assuming the treasurers duties with Katrina King serving as the recording secretary.
Only first grade will play this Saturday, the opening round fixtures seeing Court House take on Kookaburras at Kitchener Park and Albion face Mornington at Wolseley Park.
Albion have retained many of the side that took the club to the two-day grand final last season with a couple of notable additions.
“Jenko (Brad Jenkinson) is having a run for us,” captain Andy Mack said.
He’ll boost their bowling and batting.
“We’ve been good for a fair few collapses over the years. Hopefully he’ll stiffen up the middle order,” Mack said.
Muthusamy Karthikeyan (MK) is also expected back before the end of the month and Andrew Darley around December.
“I’m pretty spoilt for choice for bowlers,” Mack said.
That choice extends to variety, Mack also mentioning the likes of Hayden Baker, Jono Crowe and Will Maggs.
Baker was someone that “came out of the blue” last season. Used as a spinner most of the season, he can also bowl handy medium pace.
Maggs is another promising youngster.
“He’s played a bit of Northern Inland stuff,” Mack said.
“The past two or three years he’s won the most wickets in second grade.”
He said Mornington are a bit of an unknown, although they too have been bolstered by the return of a couple of familiar faces.
“Whilst we haven’t finalised our team for Saturday we are looking stronger,” president Pat Maher said.
“We’ve got a few players coming back that haven’t played for a few years.”
Most notably Trent Hilton and Jordy Ford. Besides them, Maher reported Ben Hennessy is “as keen as mustard this year” while Nick Willoughby is also back.
Willoughby was a standout for them two years ago.
“He’s an opening batsmen. That’s what we needed, a couple of players at the top of the order,” Maher said.
Hilton and Ford will also add some depth to the batting.
Mornington didn’t manage to win a game last season but were right in a few games.
“There were about five games there where we were very close but we couldn’t get that one wicket,” Maher said.
Court House took all before them last season claiming both the McDonagh Cup (One Day) and JVJ McAdam (Two Day) trophies but are rumoured to have lost co-captain Matt Brady.
Kookaburras though have arguably been the biggest hit with Jenkinson moving to Albion, and young gun Adam McGuirk and allrounder Troy Sands playing in Tamworth this season.