As they prepare to trade the Sherrin for the whites, Gunnedah Bulldogs trio Andy Mack, Brad Jenkinson and Mitch Swain have been named in the Northern Inland Bolters squad for the upcoming Plan B Regional Big Bash.
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Mack was involved in the Bolters’ campaign last year but Jenkinson and Swain are among several new faces in the 20-man squad.
“There’s a lot of fresh faces,” Central North zone administrator Hayley Bullock said.
Several of those earned their spots after impressing at the Northern Inland Bolters Twenty20 Gala Day held earlier in the year.
That was one of the designs of the tournament – to unearth some new talent.
Now into it’s third year and featuring 16 regional teams from throughout Country NSW, the structure of the Big Bash has been tweaked with the Sixers conference teams split into two pools to play a carnival weekend.
The two winning teams will then go on to play at the SCG where they will meet the pool winners from the Thunder conference.
The Bolters have been draw in a pool with the Coffs Coast Chargers, Northern Rivers Rock and Macquarie Coast Stingers.
It is shaping as a bumper season for the region with three of NSW Country Cricket’s premier tournaments being hosted by Northern Inland Cricket Council Associations.
Inverell will hold the Northern Country Opens Championships in November, Tamworth the Country Colts carnival in December and Armidale the Kookaburra Cup in January.
Mixed in amongst that is various other carnivals, such as this weekend’s Central North Invitational carnival in Tamworth.
The annual pre-season tournament will see the Northern Inland U13’s, U14’s and U16’s teams taking on their counterparts from the Hunter Valley, Mid North Coast and Scots College and feature several local players.
Zoe Fleming and Claire McGuirk will then pad up for Central North as they chase home Women’s Country Championship success at Raymond Terrace.
McGuirk will play for the U15’s and Fleming the U18’s.
The U15’s championships will be held on October 3 and 4 with the U18’s to follow on October 5 and 6.
The standard of junior cricket across the Central North and performance of the zone sides has been a big focus during the off-season and prompted the introduction of a new competition.
An addition to the existing Northern Inland and Hunter Valley competitions that run over the season, the new competition will be played over three rounds and involve two Northern Inland and two Hunter Valley sides.
The idea is to expose the players to a more consistent higher standard of cricket.
It will also help with selections for the various Central North representative teams, Bullock said.
She is preparing for a very busy season with the zone as a whole set to host the most carnivals it ever has.
Recognising the boon to not only the local associations but also the local economy she approached Country Cricket about how the zone could secure the rights to host more carnivals.
“It’s lots of work hosting them but the benefits to the local association is huge,” Bullock said. The estimate of what a three day carnival can inject is around half a million dollars.