Orange product Charlie Litchfield kicks off his first full Sydney Grade Cricket season for Sydney University on Saturday, just a week after returning from the 2016 Red Bull Campus Cricket World Finals (CCWL) in Sri Lanka.
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Litchfield, a former Kinross, Orange, Mitchell, Western and NSW Country representative, will line up in Sydney Uni’s third grade side to play Campbelltown-Camden following the campaign in Sri Lanka where he, in his candid words, “didn’t do very well”.
His confidence isn’t shaken though, far from it, he’s chuffed to have had the experience.
“No, I didn’t do very well,” Litchfield laughed.
“I got ducks in the first two games and then a handful of runs in the third, so it was’t ideal. Trying to pull on those low, slow wickets wasn’t a great idea.
“It was an incredible experience though, we got outclassed in the cricket side of things but it was still great and everything off the field was too.”
Sydney University earned the right to wear the green and gold of Australia after winning the 2015 Australian University Games, they played three of their equivalents from around the world in Sri Lanka – Bangladesh, South Africa and England.
“I wasn’t actually in the side that won the AUGs, I was still at school. But a few guys weren’t eligible to go because they’d finished university last year, so myself and a couple of others took their spots,” Litchfield explained.
“We lost all three games, we got thoroughly outclassed against Bangladesh. We got rolled for 80 and they chased it down in about six overs.
“We didn’t disgrace ourselves against England or South Africa though, so that was a plus.”
Bathurst product Ben Trevor-Jones and Cowra’s Joe Kershaw were also in the touring squad for Sri Lanka, which Litchfield said was a huge bonus.
“It was nice to have those boys there too, it’s a bit of an old Western Zone connection I guess,” he said.
Litchfield is confident heading into Saturday’s game against Campbelltown-Camden and said his ultimate goal for the season is to work his way into second grade. First grade, that’d be a bonus.
“We’ve got a lot of depth at the moment,” Litchfield said.
“Our second and third grade sides are pretty similar in standard, our third grade team won the competition easily last season so I’ll just have to score some runs and hope I get a promotion.
“Second grade is the goal, but I’ll focus on scoring some runs before I think about anything else.”
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
