WESTERN Zone’s representative under 18s team has a distinct Bathurst and Dubbo feel to it.
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Players from the two cities filled all but two of the spots on the squad, which was named on Monday following the weekend’s Western Zone Colts Carnival held in Orange.
A St Pat’s Old Boys quintet of Nic Broes, Ben Mitchell, Tanvir Singh, Mitch Taylor and Ethan Ivory were the Bathurst players to make the squad following a mixed bag of carnival results for their team.
Broes, Mitchell and Singh scored 255 runs between themselves in their win over the home side – helping them put the previous day’s loss to Dubbo behind them.
Ivory claimed 2-32 against Orange while former CHS representative Taylor recently claimed a six-fer in Bathurst District Cricket Association action.
The Western team will contest the Under 18s Country Colts Championships in Narrabri from December 17-20.
They will be coached by Garth Dean who watched on with plenty of interest during the weekend’s carnival.
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“It’s exciting to take a group like that away. Hopefully they can all perform well at the same time through the week,” he said.
“The Colts Carnival was a good concept which we’re probably going to hang onto now. Getting the best colts players from across the region playing against one another makes the selection process more valid.
“There’s probably one or two players who have won a spot who may not have done so without this carnival. It’s a great concept we’d like to lock in for around this time each year.”
The Western representative team also contains the likes of Dubbo talents Brock Larance and Henry Railz.
Larance was a recent centurion at the NSW CHS Cricket Championship and last season represented the Australian under 16s team.
Railz joined forces with Penrith Cricket Club this season and has scored second grade and Podevin-Gray half centuries.
Western will be looking to improve on last season’s efforts at the Country Colts competition. They finished the 2017-18 event with one win from three games.
Broes, Larance, Railz, Corey McDean and Tom Atlee are the five players who already boast experience at the event.
They will face Central Northern, ACT and Riverina in 50 over games and will play Newcastle and Central Coast in Twenty20.
“There are guys in this team with another year to go, like Ben Mitchell and Brock Larance,” Dean said.
“We have Central Northern on the first day – the home team. They’ve already named their team so obviously they’ve been preparing for a while. That will be a really good test for us.
“If we come out of that game well then we know we’re going to be there, or thereabouts.
“We have an excellent squad but they’ve got to perform together as a team through the whole week. You can have a team full of champions but you’ve got to perform.”