WHILE Oxford Centennials duo Josh Toole and Aaron Seymour are the only starters from Bathurst in next weekend’s Western Zone cricket trial against Eastern Suburbs’ first grade side, there could be other locals in the mix down the track.

The Western side will meet Easts in Cowra next Saturday then will play at the same venue against the Hawkesbury first grade outfit a week later.

The 12-man group for next weekend is set, with Toole to bat in the middle-order where his hard hitting has become a key part of the side over the last two seasons. Seymour will partner Jacob McNaught with the new ball.

But there is nothing set in stone for the second game and some other players are likely to be tested in that match.

“There’s a few more players that we have in mind to potentially come into the team, a few of them are from Bathurst,” selector Matt Crawley said.

“Jameel Quershi was an obvious one, he’d be an automatic candidate any time we’re selecting a side, but his availability has been a bit up and down in the last few years and I know at one stage he wanted to take a bit of a step back from rep stuff.

“Young Callum Hotham, who has been over in England during the winter, is certainly another guy who is in the mix depending on which way the selectors decide to go.

“He’s got a lot of promise and having chatted to him on Facebook, I know that he’s been doing some wicketkeeping over there, so that’s an extra string to his bow as a possible back-up to Jordan Moran.”

Of the two Bathurst players already in the side for the first challenge – Crawley prefers to use that term over ‘trial’ as a trial lends itself to players taking the match less seriously – he said they both have a lot to offer Western.

“I watched the first day of the President’s Cup last season when Seymour took five wickets against Mudgee and from there I was very surprised that he didn’t take the new ball for Mitchell against Valleys,” he explained.

“That probably cost him a Western spot last year. We’ve tracked his progress since then though and now he gets an opportunity against a very strong opponent and he’ll probably get another game against Hawkesbury.

“He hasn’t followed the traditional path of junior representative teams, but there are a number of theories about how you get to this level and he’s done a great job to get this far.

“Josh is an excellent player, he knows his role perfectly and brings a lot of energy to the team. He’s a damaging batsman and very good in the field and a great bloke to have as part of that team.”