While his selection came as somewhat of a surprise to the Gunnedah local, positive performances have left him with a new-found confidence in his sport of choice.

“I suppose a big thing I really managed to do throughout last week’s carnival was just play my role,” Clarke said.

“To be honest, I was a little bit surprised to get picked, but once I was there I just wanted to make the most of the opportunity. 

“I’m not a massive hitter, so for me, my job was to make it as easy as possible for my teammates to come in down the order.

“Luckily there was a few games where I was able to do that and make a few runs against quality attacks, which was pleasing.”

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Clarke said battling it out with the state’s best under-16 cricketers was a “massive learning curve”.

“To be honest, coming into the carnival I didn’t think I stood much of a chance against all of those blokes,” he said.

“But then as I was facing up I just thought you’re only going to have one go at this carnival so take the most out of it.

“From there, that’s pretty much how I played every game. I just tried to soak it all in and learn as much as I could from all of the great players there.”

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For the rest of the season, Clarke hopes to continue his promising form for his local club Albion.

“I think the big thing I took out of the carnival was that I now know I am capable of making a few runs,” Clarke said.

“Hopefully I can bring that into Gunnedah cricket and make a few more runs than I have been making recently.”

Clarke credited his team’s “great atmosphere” for its success during last week’s carnival in Albury.

“It was just an all around great experience with a great bunch of blokes,” he said.

“While I’m not confident of making the next stage of the State Challenge, I’m hopeful a few of my teammates will because they performed really well.”

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