Season starter for Carps

Narrandera Carpheads A grade team will play Leeton Soldiers Club Colts this Saturday in a one day match at Mark Taylor Oval
in what will be the Carps’ first game of the season.

The only major change for the team this year from a playing perspective is former longstanding player and captain Lachie Jess will be having a year off from the game. Brent Lawrence will return as captain of the A Grade team for the 2017/18 season with
wicket keeper James Sullivan to fill the role of vice captain.

Lawrence hasn’t captained the A Grade team since the 2007/08 season.

“I’m really looking forward to the challenge of working with our playing group to improve the way we approach different  situations we find ourselves in during each game we play,” he said. “I’m sure if you asked the majority of our senior players we each didn’t provide enough consistent contributions with the bat when it was needed which was a disappointing way to end our season in 2016-17.

“Building an innings and placing a higher value on each of our wickets will see positive results if we can all get our mindsets right
to perform the roles we each need to for the team on a weekly basis.”

Lawrence said the balance and variety in the team’s bowling attack had been a great strength of the Narrandera team for quite
a few years now, and he was certain that would not be any different this year.

“In saying that though I’m looking forward to mixing things up a little bit more regularly to ensure we don’t become too predictable with our tactics and plans,” he said. “With the ball I’m expecting Jacob Anderson, Mark Tilyard and Jono Doyle to
lead the way for us like they always do and with the bat Jarred Lane to continue on from a strong season last year with good support from experienced campaigners like Rohan Rehwinkel and James Sullivan.

“I’m also excited for one of our promising talented young players Ryan Argus, who will get his opportunity to open the batting  his year after a couple of strong performances filling that role in our batting order last season. I’m positive he will grab the opportunity with both hands and make that position his own.”

Lawrence said this season would also see a few debutantes getting a taste for A grade on a regular basis.

“It’s wonderful to be able to bring some of our youth into the line-up as it keeps our older more experienced players fresh and feeding off their enthusiasm and desire to perform well, not just for our team, but for our town which we represent.”

Narrandera B grade Carpheads will play Yanco Cricket Club this week in the Carps’ first home game for the year. B grade captain Dave Kroek said Narrandera had a pretty good rivalry with Yanco, but at the same time got along really well with them.

“They had a good win last week, when Narrandera boy Brad Evans scored a hundred, so we’ll look to get him out early,” he said.
“Hopefully Brodie Perram and Jack Williamson can take early wickets and put us in a good position. Similarly we’ll look to Jono Schofield and Ash Cabban to get us off to a good start with the bat.

“We’ve got a few guys coming in for their first games, Wyatt Gilbert, Dillion Penhall and Oliver Park, who has recently moved back to town, are all available for selection so hopefully they can all contribute positively,” said Kroek.

The possibility of Narrandera fielding C or D grade cricket teams was discussed at a meeting in Narrandera this week, but the outcome was unknown at the time of going to press. While the enthusiasm has been subdued for a C grade side, a D grade side consisting of under 14s players may well go ahead.