While Saturday’s Western Zone presentation night was a chance to recognise the standout individual efforts of the past 12 months, it was also an opportunity to recognise the area’s standing within NSW Country Cricket.
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The bulk of Western Zone’s Country Championship-winning side and also the Orana Outlaws’ Plan B Regional Bash champions were in attendance at Orange on Saturday.
“It was good to just sit around the table and just enjoy the achievement we’ve had this year,” Dubbo’s Jordan Moran, a member of both sides, said.
“It’s quite a dominant era we’re going through, winning three of the past five (Country Championships) and even playing in four of the past six finals.
“You sit back and even looking at some of the silverware on that table on Saturday night, it hits home just how successful a group of players have been and its been a very similar group of players for the past five or six years.”
The task now for Moran and the rest of the Zone is stay at the pinnacle of country cricket.
The success in both competitions confirmed Western Zone as the premier region for the senior representative cricket, somewhere the side is determined to remain.
“When we were away at Country Championships other players were asking what we do different and why we’re so dominant so they’re asking the questions and trying to catch us so it’s up to us to stay ahead and make them keep chasing,” Moran said.
Moran was also a worthy winner of Saturday at Orange, having enjoyed the finest season of his already-glittering country career and claiming the Carl Sharpe Medal for male cricketer of the year.
So often a key man for Western, Moran went to the next level this summer and starred for NSW Country during the national titles, a tournament in which he made a century against Western Australia Country earned selection in the Australian Country team – the highest honour for a cricketer outside the city.
“It’s probably a year I’ll never be able to mirror again,” he said.
“Everything just fell into place this year and it will probably show my character next year if I can go out and perform just as well, if not better. It’s a big honour to sit back and think you’ve been named the best cricketer this side of the Blue Mountains.
Lisa Griffith claimed the female equivalent while fellow Bathurst star Ryan Peacock was named youth player of the year, Cowra’s Greg Nicholls was named Volunteer of the Year and Dennis Cox was awarded life membership.