BATHURST'S Cooper Stephen and Blayde Burke are ready to take on the best that regional NSW has to offer at the upcoming Under 14s State Challenge starting this Monday in Dubbo.
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The pair have earned a spot in the South West Kangaroos side thanks to their efforts at December's Under 14s NSW Youth Championships with the Central West Wranglers.
The Wranglers ended up winning three of their seven games, including a win over rivals Western Plains Outlaws.
Stephen captained the Wranglers squad and led by example as he finished equal second on the wicket takers list with nine dismissals at an average of 7.11, to go along with his 87 runs.
He produced back-to-back knocks of 33 and 22 overs rounds two and three, and in the second of those matches he capped off a great all-round performance with bowling figures of 3-12 - helping the Wranglers knock over the ACT Barons.
Stephen claimed at least one wicket in every match where he bowled.
Burke was the best of the Central West side on the overall batting chart from the tournament, at 15th with 127 runs.
He was the top scorer for the Wranglers in the victory over the Outlaws, with 36 runs.
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Burke then followed that up with an unbeaten 39 against the Greater Southern Marlins and came even close to the half century when he made it to 45 against the ACT Kings.
Toby Middleton and Baden Lewis were the other players from Central West Wranglers to move on to the next level of representation alongside the Bathurst pair.
Stephen was stoked to hear that he'd been selected for the next level.
"It's been a good season for me. I'm happy with how it's going. My club cricket and President's Cup has been great," he said.
"It feels really good to make this team alongside a couple of my mates from the Central West team.
"I'm obviously familiar with Baden, Toby and Blayde but I don't know anyone else in the group but we got to play against them. I'm keen to see how we go."
It's certainly been far from an ideal lead up to the tournament for Burke, who has found himself caught up in the ongoing COVID pandemic, but that hasn't diminished his excitement for the return to Dubbo.
"Luckily I got hit by it early enough that I'm still able to go," Burke said from his home on Tuesday, where he was in his final few days of isolation.
"I was really happy with how I performed at Dubbo. I got close to having a couple of half centuries and we didn't do too bad as a team. We gelled quite well."
Burke has worked hard to evolve his game over the past few years and it's paying off.
"I performed quite well with the ball too over there. I bowl spin now. I did start out as a medium pacer but moved across to that," he said.
"That's been going really well for me and all my coaches have been happy with the way it's going.
"I did start out more as a bowler but I've been working on my batting."
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