Orange’s Mitchell Cricket Council Under-12 grand final hopes look likely to hinge on their final-round clash with Bathurst, as such entering that blockbuster match-up on February 17 with as much confidence and momentum as possible is vital.
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The Stu Middleton-coached outfit has quite a bit of both following back-to-back wins over the Blue Mountains and then Mudgee last weekend, so building on both in Sunday’s return clash with the latter is the black and golds’ focus.
Obviously, Middleton said, the best way to do that is to back up last Sunday’s six-wicket win over the young, winless Mudgee outfit with another comfortable victory.
“With Mudgee winless and us coming into last Sunday without a training session in January it was a bit of a danger game, so it was good the guys got the job done and they’re improving with every game,” Middleton said, before running through his side’s equation.
“We’re third now behind (competition leaders) Bathurst and the (second-placed) Blue Mountains and they have their return game this weekend too after they were washed out last week.
“Their draw actually hurt us a little bit because it kept the Blue Mountains a couple of points in front of us and they play Mudgee in the last round, and they should win that one.
“But if they get beaten by Bathurst on Sunday and we beat Mudgee again, it’ll make our last game against Bathurst a do-or-die one.”
Although Bathurst are undefeated and seven points clear on top Middleton said knocking them off isn’t outside the realms of possibility at all, in fact he thinks his troops probably should’ve won their round one encounter last October.
“We just bowled a few too many sundries in that game. We had [124] on the board and kept Bathurst to [81] off the bat, but we gave them 50-odd sundries,” he explained, Bathurst eventually winning by three wickets.
We’re third now behind (competition leaders) Bathurst and the (second-placed) Blue Mountains.
- Orange coach Stu Middleton
“But that happens and our bowlers have improved every week which is all we can ask of them, they bowled really well against Mudgee last week as well. They hit their lines and lengths and on [Jack Brabham 2’s] turf, that’s what they have to do.
“We had a good partnership between Tom Blowes and Tobes (Middleton) after losing a few early wickets too, hopefully we can continue improving this week.”
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Sunday’s road trip to Mudgee for the return clash will have a slight difference though, they’ll be on synthetic, which this weekend is a by-product of Cricket Australia’s recent rule changes which shorten the wicket to 18 metres in this age group.
Orange’s under 14s have the bye this weekend but are guaranteed a spot in the top four finals, and will finish third.
The under-16 development outfit – the top side plays in the Premier League and Challenge Shield – travels to Mudgee as well after their first win of the season last weekend.
While they are out of the running in terms of the decider, they’ll be gunning to finish their campaign on a high and potentially cause a boilover against Bathurst in the final round.
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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.
