Almost every cricket pitch in town is being put to work this week with Armidale staging the 2024 NSW Primary Schools Sports Association Primary Cricket Boys Championship through until Friday.
14 Teams are taking part from across the state with CIS the defending champions having won when tournament was staged around Ballina and Lismore.
Sydney North, CIS and Mackillop were among the comfortable winners on Tuesday’s opening day of the Championship. Mackillop’s win unfortunately coming at the expense of the local North West side.
Sydney North, winners of the tournament in 2022, registered a decisive victory at Newling Oval notching up 5/197 before dismissing South Coast for 96. Tarun Jegatheeswaran starred with 82 with the bat plus Jack Tazawa finished 49 not out.
The 2024 edition of the event so started well for the side made up of Sydney’s Northern suburbs plus the Central Coast they picked up a wicket on the first ball on the reply to set-up their win and had five different wicket-takers in their line-up, highlighted by Ekam Dhillon’s 3/16. Sydney North’s first three bowlers all applied the pressure each going at less than 2 runs per over.
Defending champions CIS scored 7/154 and bowled Western out for 61 to sound a warning their title defence is one to be reckoned with.
Polding, Riverina, Sydney East and Sydney West were also winners on day one.
Armidale is the host venue for this prestigious tournament with Guyra and Walcha also staging matches. In previous editions the tournament has seen the likes of current Australian pace bowler and Bendemeer boy Josh Hazlewood and former skipper Michael Clarke participate. Arguably Australia’s most famous twins Mark and Steve Waugh both represented their respective regions at past editions of the carnival.
One of the unique aspects of the tournament is it represents the first time many of the players have played 50-over a side cricket. The majority of the squads are made up of representative players from their respective districts who usually only feature in 20-over, 30-over or 40-over a side club or representative cricket.
Armidale District Cricket Association will be represented by Jake Simpson (Martin’s Gully PS) and Leo Blomfield (Walcha Central) who will both line up for the North West Zone side. They will be hoping for better luck tomorrow after Mackillop set the largest target of the day with 8/262 against North West before the locals were dismissed for 67.
Tournament organisers have done an amazing job to get the games on with rain around the district in recent days and more forecaste to arrive. The tournament is due to be played primarily on turf pitches but many of the district’s synthetic fields were used on day one to ensure matches could still make place.
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