The best players from the Barrier District Cricket League will today face off against the best players from the Red Cliffs Cricket Association in the third annual representative match between Broken Hill and Red Cliffs, set to take place at Alma Oval from 1pm.
Each side has named a 12-man squad for the fixture, with Tobias Hack named captain of Broken Hill, while Red Cliffs named Jason Cullinan. With each team having one win from the past two encounters, home ground advantage has proven decisive.
“Representing the town is special. We don’t get to play too many representative games together and to be to be the captain as well is even more special,” Tobias told the Barrier Truth.
Broken Hill coach Codie Howard expressed similar sentiments, adding representative games are a good opportunity for players to put rivalries aside and play for their hometown.
“Being able to coach at the highest level of cricket in Broken Hill is a massive honour,” he said.
“Especially in Broken Hill, being unique that we’ve only got the four teams and you get quite used to playing against each other, it’s a good opportunity for a few of the guys to meet players from other clubs, get together and get to know each other on a on a different level.”
Both Tobias and Codie point towards Broken Hill’s batting lineup as a major advantage for the side.
“I think our batting is very strong. We bat very, very deep and it means the guys at the top of the order can go hard knowing they’ve got really good quality batters coming behind them,” Tobias said.
Codie adds, “The aggressive nature of the batters that we have, I think we’re able to post a big total, and quite quickly. I think that’s going to be a real strength for Broken Hill as well as the experience that a lot of these players have playing representative cricket for Broken Hill”.
Without knowing the opposition that’s going to rock up on the day, both captain and coach are expecting a strong game, with Codie highlighting the mix of experience of the Broken Hill team that could also play into the home team’s favour.
“We’ll be expecting high-quality players. We’re going to have to be at the top of our game,” Codie says.
“Players like Tobias Hack, Mackenzie Attard, Max Everuss, Callum Rosewarn, these players have played a lot of representative crickets but then we also have a few first-timers in Austin Wilson, Ben Jurd, who are both extremely talented cricketers, and also a young lad in Kade Ticehurst from Central who’ll get a chance as an underage player to represent his city and it’s pretty exciting to see that.”
Red Cliffs Cricket Association Secretary, Geoff Christensen, says there’s an excitement in the air about making the drive up for the match.
“The boys are excited to come up. We’ve had a training session [on Thursday] night and they’re all ready to go. I think we’ll have much stiffer opposition this year because we’re on Broken Hill’s home patch”, he told us.
BROKEN HILL SQUAD
Tobias Hack (c), Mackenzie Attard (vc), Max Everuss, Paddric Attard, Callum Rosewarn, Lawrence Hebbard, Codie Howard, Kade Ticehurst, Ben Jurd, Austin Wilson, Tristan Smith, Scott Mateer
RED CLIFFS SQUAD
Seth Lanigan (c), Jason Cullinan (vc), John Mensforth, Aaron Negi, Mitch Shaw, Nic Vine, Zac Heath, Jordan Bolitho, Jason Finch, Vicky Gupta, Brad Purdue, Allan Brown
