After congratulating Victoria Blue on its division one win and the NSW Kangaroos on their division two triumph, Veterans Cricket Australia Over-50 National Championships coordinator Gil McGrath lauded Orange, Bathurst and Molong as hosts.
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He said, simply, veterans cricket will be back too.
Soon.
It won’t be in the form of a national championship, they’re rotated around the states every year, but thanks to the format’s fast-growing nature McGrath’s predicting a regional tournament coming to Western Zone in the very near future.
“The Western Wildfires and Riverina are the state champions in divisions two and one (respectively) and veterans cricket is one of the fastest-growing areas of the sport in the country, so we’ll certainly be staying in the region. I think veterans cricket will be definitely be back in Orange,” McGrath said.
“I don’t think NSW hosts another national championship, in over 50s, 60s or 70s, for another seven years, so it won’t be a nationals, but I think we’ll see a regional championship soon.
“There’s a nice little bit of history in that this one was the first over-50 championship and it was in Orange, so that can’t be taken away, and we also introduced the inaugural day-night game, the McDonald’s Trophy.
It was a great weekend. Veterans cricket will definitely be back in Orange soon.
- Tournament director Gil McGrath
“We’d like to retain that in Orange every year. It was a great weekend, we were all very impressed with what Orange, Bathurst and Molong had to offer.”
Victoria won its top tier title with thumping wins over Tasmania Thylacines, NSW Blues, Queensland Border and then Queensland Burge in the final, running through undefeated.
The Kangaroos, a side that included former Orange City skipper Bruce Tom, also boasted an unblemished record. Tom’s NSW outfit defeated Victoria Red, Tassie Devils and Victoria Gold in the preliminary stage, before downing Victoria Green in Monday’s final at Riawena Oval.
Tom claimed the final wicket of that game as well, which also the last wicket of the carnival as the division two final was the last game to finish.
“It was a bit of an unknown being the first, Queensland have always been tough to beat in the over 60s and over 70s, but Victoria and NSW obviously got the job done,” McGrath said.
Of the other play-off results available at time of publication, Queensland Border won the division one third place play-off over NSW Waratahs and the ACT Fireballs defeated the Thylacines for fifth.
In division two, Victoria Gold defeated the NSW Sixers for fifth, NSW Kookaburras beat Queensland Grout for seventh and the NSW Boomers defeated the Devils for ninth.
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.
