Western to complete their remaining four Bradman Cup fixtures in Newcastle this week

Bathurst District Cricket Association players Liam Cain, Kayne Veney, Eli Morris and their Western teammates have the big points to play for during this week's four 50 over games.

The team went down narrowly to Illawarra and ACT Southern Districts during last month's opening batch of matches at the under 16s tournament but a convincing victory over Riverina showed what the group are capable of.

They'll get their campaign back underway against the Central Coast at Belmont on Tuesday.

Veney, a Cowra native, has been playing his cricket in Bathurst in a bid to try and take his game to the next level.

Prior to his Bathurst move Veney finished the 2020-21 Cowra junior season with a batting average of 43.17.

Following his recent first batch of Bradman Cup games he returned to play with Rugby Union's second grade side and hit 71 in their game against Bathurst City.

Veney, 16, is always keen to make the Bathurst trips for his weekend cricket and has been enjoying the experience.

"Since the start of the season I've had a couple of training sessions down here and I really love Bathurst cricket. It's really good to be a part of," he said.

"Everyone's been really nice and they love seeing youngsters come through the ranks out here. That's why I picked here.

"Things got off pretty slow for me but last game I went quite well with runs. I've also spent some time working on my bowling in the nets, and that's coming along too."

Veney will be hoping to try a build off one of his starts with the bat at this week's back half of the Bradman Cup campaign.

Western scored a 40 run victory over Riverina and there could easily have been more success for the team.

They were all out 23 runs short of Illawarra's total in the opening game, and still had more than seven overs left to play at the time.

Then the side were defeated on the second last ball of the game when ACT Southern Districts chased down Western's total of 115.

"We won one of three and the two games that we lost were really close. It's down to just trusting in the way we play and digging in when it gets tough," Veney said.

"I'm sure, individually, everyone's been practicing and working as hard as they can leading up to this because we really want to win."

Following Tuesday's opening game with Central Coast the Western boys will follow up with matches against the unbeaten North Coastal (Wednesday), hosts Newcastle (Thursday) and Central Northern (Friday).

Cain will be resuming with four wickets to his name (2-32 against Illawarra, 2-18 against ACT) and Morris will look to add more dismissals to what's been an economical campaign with the ball.

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