Gunnedah High pair Adam McGuirk and Ashley White, and Quirindi High’s Jake Chapple padded up for the North West CHS boys cricket side at last week’s state carnival in Armidale.
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In what was White’s last campaign with the zone side, the hosts finished a disappointing 10th.
Young tyro Zac Craig was a shining light for the home side.
The youngest member of the side, and one of the youngest players at the carnival, the Farrer Year 7 student looked far from out of place, North West manager Andrew Curry said.
“It was only his size he looked out of place,” Curry said.
The diminutive youngster was their leading wicket-taker for the carnival and named their most valuable player.
”He took eight or nine wickets and in one game we were in a bit of strife and he went in and batted out,” he said.
“He only got about nine runs but we ended up putting on 40 with him sticking it out.”
Craig was indicative of what was a “very young side” .
“We had a big turnover this year,” Curry said.
They will though only lose three players – White, Farrer’s Conrad George and Guyra Central’s BJ Cameron.
“We got a good basis there,” he said.
He lamented their inability to “put together a decent team effort”.
“We just didn’t have many good partnerships batting and bowling we couldn’t really tie them down and build the pressure that way,” Curry said.
“But credit to the boys they never gave up.”
“They were a great team to manage.”
They did have “a very tough draw”.
“The first day we played Sydney North - they ended up being a finalist,” Curry said.
“We lost by eight wickets.”
After going down to Sydney West they then faced three-times defending champions Hunter.
“They’ve got a few very good players in their side,” Curry said.
“They’ve got Will Fort – he’s an underage Australian player and he got 99.”
They wrapped up their campaign with a loss to North Coast.
George was the most consistent performer with the bat, while the wickets, aside from Craig, were fairly spread around.
“Nobody really dominated which in a carnival you need. You need someone to take three or four wickets a game,” Curry said.
North West Team: Adam McGuirk, Ashley White (Gunnedah High), Joey Mead, Conrad George, Liam Rodgers, Zac Craig, Oscar Spinks, Landan Price, Thomas Haling (Farrer), BJ Cameron (Guyra Central), Dylan Smith (Wee Waa High), Jake Chapple (Quirindi High).
