STEPPING UP: Charlie Litchfield will make his senior representative debut tomorrow by opening the batting for Orange. Photo: MICHELLE COOK 0921mccharlie1
CHARLIE Litchfield is about to get his first taste of open representative cricket.
The 15-year-old will line up for Orange when it takes on Mudgee in tomorrow’s opening Western Premier League match at the Orange Ex-Services’ Country Club Oval.
Orange captain Trent Colley has been impressed with what he’s seen of Litchfield at training and named the teenager to open the batting tomorrow with fellow young gun John Warrington.
“It’s pretty exciting. It’s a big challenge,” Litchfield said.
“There’s not much pressure on me. I’ll just try and score some runs.”
Litchfield said he was excited to even be in the open side.
The Kinross Wolaroi student is still eligible to play junior cricket.
He was a regular for Kinross in the Orange District Cricket Association first grade competition last season.
During the 2011-12 season the right hand batsman scored 159 runs in 11 games at an average of 19.88.
He said he wasn’t sure what to expect from Mudgee because it is his first foray into senior representative cricket.
The new-look Orange side is hoping for a strong start to the season tomorrow after a horror 2011-12 where it recorded one win.
Regardless of tomorrow’s result, Litchfield will be back out in the middle on Monday and Tuesday playing for the Western Zone under 17s.
Litchfield and Nick Duffy are the two Orange players in the Western Zone side which will take on the University of NSW Green Shield side on Monday and St George on Tuesday.
“We’ve been training quite well,” Litchfield said of the 17s.
“We’ve got Trent Colley coaching us. There’s something different about the side this year. We’re a bit more professional.”
The teenager admitted three games in a row to start the season would be tiring but he was looking forward to it.
“It’s good to get into it nice and early,” he smiled.
Tomorrow’s WPL game between Orange and Mudgee will be played at the Country Club Oval from 10am.
The games on Monday and Tuesday will be played at Riawena Oval from 10am
n ORANGE: Trent Colley (c), Dave Boundy, James Conn, Luke Clarke, Lincoln Duncan, Matt Findlay, Hamish Finlayson, Clint Grambeau, Charlie Litchfield, Chris Novak, Josh Sands, John Warrington, Nick Wright.