Armidale’s three junior representative cricket sides hope the home ground advantage plays in their favour when they play Gunnedah this Sunday.
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The under 12s, 14s and 16s are all on home turf for round four of the Northern Inland competitions.
For the under 12s, it is the chance to keep their unbeaten record in tact.
“I reckon the 12s are in with a really good shot at continuing their run and in the 16s, if they play well, could knock off Gunnedah,” junior coordinator Andrew Page said.
“If Armidale play like they can then I think we will roll them.”
For under 16’s coach Mark McDermott said it has been a frustrating start to the representative season with his team full of young stars but are yet to put the points on the board.
“We are looking just as strong as we have looked in every other game we just haven't clicked really,” he said.
“When our bowlers have been on our batters have been off and vice versa.”
Gunnedah has won back-to-back but McDermott said if his side gel, they will be unstoppable.
“Honestly, if we bring to the table what I know we can bring we will beat them,” he said.
“I am quite confident that we will beat them here. They have a strong batting lineup from what I can say from the stats but our bowling lineup is as good as any.
“We just need a few of our big guns like Cotter and Benji to fire with the bat, which neither of them have done yet, and hopefully it will be this weekend.”
The under 14’s game against Tamworth Gold was postponed two weeks ago but their opening two matches saw them finish as comfortable victors.
Coach Craig Johnson said his team are at full strength with a handful stepping up in form in recent weeks.
“They are a strong team, we are going pretty good. We have three kids in the Central North sides. Ben Heagney got two 100s in the one weekend, he got 100 on the Saturday morning and then on the Sunday he got 100 so he did really well,” he said.