SUMMER sport got off to a hot start with the season opener of the Dungog and District Cricket Association competition.<\/p>\n
The first match was between Karuah-Tea Gardens and Wallarobba-Stroud at Tea Gardens\u2019 Memorial Park on Saturday 11 October. <\/p>\n
The home team, the Sharks, hosted the newly amalgamated Wombats in 30-plus degree weather, with many happy for drinks at the end of the first 20 overs. <\/p>\n
Karuah-Tea Gardens came into the new season on an 18-month undefeated high, which culminated in their 2024 grand final victory.<\/p>\n
But reality hit early with the Wombats chalking up a total score of 4\/241 after 35 overs and the home team all out for 72. <\/p>\n
Even a few ducks were seen walking off the pitch, one of them golden.<\/p>\n
Wallarobba-Stroud\u2019s Owen Daley scored an impressive 128 not-out, while some very tidy bowling by the Wombats kept the Sharks to their lower scoreline. <\/p>\n
The local boys did well enough on several counts. The top three scorers were Trent Page (27 runs) Ben Woolard (21) and Bowen Betts (12).<\/p>\n
The best local bowlers for the match were Bowen Betts (2\/42), Paul Mascord (1\/25), and Matthew Price (1\/51). <\/p>\n
Several local rugby league players are keeping themselves fit in the off-season by running around the cricket pitch.<\/p>\n
Some have been with the Sharks since their early years, including Ben Woolard and Jordan Barry, who have been involved with the seniors since they were 12-years-old.<\/p>\n
There are only six teams in this year\u2019s Dungog and District competition, as many players have retired or moved on, or been outplayed by farm-life commitments. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to have six different age groups in the competition scattered between the Maitland and Dungog competitions,\u201d Shark Mark Woolard told News Of The Area.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had retired from the game last year after the big grand final, but the young fellas talked me into it, and I rejoined after a big twist of the arm.\u201d <\/p>\n
Players at the Karuah-Tea Gardens team hail mostly from Tea Gardens, Karuah or Pindimar, but they are always ready to welcome new hitters.<\/p>\n
The team trains on Tuesdays at 5:30pm at Tea Gardens Memorial Park. <\/p>\n
The next game is against the Dungog Bunnies at Tea Gardens on 18 October at 1pm. <\/p>\n
By Thomas O\u2019KEEFE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SUMMER sport got off to a hot start with the season opener of the Dungog and District Cricket…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-213759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}