Australia’s brightest cricketing stars took to the field last week to compete in the Cricket Australia U19 Male National Championships.
10 teams from around the country battled it out in a week of high-quality cricket commencing on April 7 and culminating in finals and playoffs played on Thursday, April 14.
Some less-than-ideal weather conditions throughout the week didn’t falter the competition, with games able to be rescheduled thanks to Great Barrier Reef Arena’s world-class drainage and lighting.
Harrup Park General Manager Adrian Young said there was a significant increase of people in the club and the community throughout the tournament.
“It was hugely successful,” he said.
“All those people coming into town can only affect positively on the economy.”
Mr Young said visiting families were happy to escape the southern states for a week in Mackay and gave positive feedback on the facilities.
“There’s not many venues like Harrup Park.”
Continuing a rivalry for the ages, the grand final was played between Queensland Cricket Metro and Cricket NSW Metro at Great Barrier Reef Arena last Thursday.
Queensland Metro won the toss and elected to bat first, with conditions looking to favour the bowlers later in the day.
Opener Stephan Muller kept Queensland afloat with a two-and-a-half-hour knock of 74 runs from 111 balls amidst a top-order batting collapse.
Lachlan Crump contributed with 20 runs batting at number six and a handy knock of 36 not out from bowler Tom Whitney got Queensland Metro to a total of 9/198 from 50 overs.
Jack Nisbet and Joel Davies bowled out their ten overs for NSW Metro, both taking two wickets each, with Yianni Theodorakopoulos and Cameron Tunks taking one each.
Some terrific work in the field from Cameron Tunks, Lachlan Shaw, and Jordan Watson also accounted for three runouts.
In response, NSW Metro started with a steady stream of runs, however, no one was able to go on to make a big total.
Lachlan Shaw top-scored with 38 runs, helped out by a Yianni Theodorakopoulos with a valiant 24 not out, and Ethan Jamieson and Joel Davies with 23 runs each.
NSW Metro’s run rate was well on track; however, it wasn’t meant to be as they ran out of wickets in the 43rd over, finishing all out for 171 runs off 42.4.
Aubrey Stockdale led the bowlers taking 3/21 off 5.4 overs, including the tournament-winning wicket.
Tom Whitney and Jeremy White took two wickets each and Noah McFadyen finished with one.
Some quick fielding and a bit of confusion from NSW Metro contributed to runouts thanks to Tobias Snell, Lachlan Crump, and Thomas Balkin.
To cap off a terrific tournament for the Queensland team, captain Noah McFadyen was named Player of the Championships, finishing the tournament with 221 runs at an average of 44.20.
“The standard of cricket was probably the best we’ve had for four or five years from a male cricket perspective,” Mr Young said.
“They’re the guys who are going to go on and play for Australia.”
The moment Queensland Metro became Australian champions. Photo: Sam Gillespie
