Mackillop takes out NSWPSSA Primary Cricket Boys Championship

Mackillop has broken the recent stranglehold held by Combined Independent Schools to claim the NSWPSSA Primary Cricket Boys Championship which concluded in Armidale on Friday.

C.I.S. (winners last year over Hunter in the final in Ballina) faced a chase of 137 to win after Mackillop posted 6/136 but were dismissed for 69 at Armidale Sports Ground.

Such was the C.I.S dominance in the tournament in recent years try triumphed four times since 2017 (which includes two COVID-impacted years where the tournament wasn’t held.) The only other team to win during this period was Sydney North two years ago.

BIG IMPROVERS

Mackillop, big improvers from last years 7^th placed finish, scored their best carnival result for seven years having last won the title in 2017. This was their second crown, 2011 the other, in the tournament which has been running since 1968.

Mackillop, who amassed 478 across the two games where they batted first, showed that runs on the board were key in the final and has C.I.S 6/37 in their chase before wrapping things up to claim the title. 

Mackillop’s victory was all the more impressive given the array of locations in New South Wales they come from. Players from across the state as far afield as Bombala in the Snowy Mountains region, the Wollongong suburb of Corrimal, plus Griffith in the Riverina and an array of suburbs in Sydney having combined to take home the state’s crown as champion primary school cricketer’s .

NATIONAL HONOURS

Unsurprisingly the NSW side selected to travel to Adelaide for the national championships from 30 November to 6 December features five Mackillop but some Australian cricketing royalty bloodlines as well as Cranbrook Junior School’s Will Watson (son of Australian all-rounder Shane Watson) was among the 12 picked for the major School Sport Australian carnival.

THE LOCALS

North West finished the tournament facing Sydney South West at Newling and whilst they posted their best batting total of the tournament of 101 their opponents chased the runs down with seven wickets in hand and a winless North-West finished 12^th but gained great experience for their future club and representative cricket endeavours.