Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Stars of the future get In2Cricket

Ella Hickey at In2Cricket

Cooma Monaro Express 20/10/11
The next generation of Australian cricketers will this month take their first steps towards the Baggy Green, as boys and girls in Cooma, Berridale and Jindabyne join their local MILO in2CRICKET centre.
MILO in2CRICKET was successfully launched in 2008, and the program for children aged 5-10 years old promises to be bigger and better in 2011-12, with three cricket clubs offering the program to boys and girls in the Monaro district.
With a new generation of players coming through in both the men’s and women’s teams at international level, a sharp focus is being put on encouraging the next generation of cricket heroes through the ranks – and MILO in2CRICKET is the natural starting point.
Southern and Illawarra Participation and Growth Officer Kezia Okulicz is excited about how the MILO in2CRICKET program can develop cricket in the Monaro area.
“The launch of the new MILO in2CRICKET program in 2008 created a lot of interest in cricket in the Monaro area. We hope to continue to build on that success this season and help all girls and boys in Monaro have a positive first experience with Australia’s favourite sport,” she said.
The following clubs will this season be conducting MILO in2CRICKET program through the cricket season, Cooma. Berridale and Jindabyne. For more information please call Kezia Okulicz on 0416 488 141 or see www.in2CRICKET.com.au

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Big year ahead for Monaro Cricketers


A massive year of cricket on the Monaro gets under way this weekend when the season proper begins with a 45 over one day match.

This season will bring more T20 games and a Grand Final for the two leading T20 teams an exciting and popular brand of cricket played over 20 overs with the emphasis on scoring runs and scoring them quickly.

Representative cricket returns to the Monaro in two weeks time when Monaro host the Far South Coast in what is always a fiercely battled contest. Monaro will also be entering a team in ACT Crickets Konica cup a T20 competition with teams entering from all over the ACT and NSW, With the Monaro team having played its fair share of T20 cricket in the last few seasons it should see some good results.

Next month sees the return of Town vs Country when the Cooma locals take on the rest of the Monaro - it will be played under lights and following the T20 format.

The very successful Battle of the Codes will return in December with Rugby League taking on AFL on Friday December 2 in what will become a traditional way to start the big weekend of the Cooma races.

In a first for the Monaro there will be a super 8 comp which to sum it up is organised backyard cricket, Super 8s will be run throughout summer and will be played all over the Monaro in a fun family friendly environment all dates and venues are listed on the website http://monarocricket.blogspot.com /p/match-reports.html

In this week’s matches Berridale will be hosting the Cooma Cats in a replay of last year’s B Grade grand final. Both teams have recruited strongly over the winter and both teams will be looking to improve on last year’s performance. They will really push to make A Grade- Berridale’s captain coach Andrew O’Keeffe, last year’s player of the year, again the player to watch with both bat and ball.

If the Cooma Cats are to make a big impact on this year’s competition Damian Asanovski will be the one to show them how it’s done.

Jindabyne will be hosting Royal and with the return of Luke Hayes and Craig Dixon, Jindabyne will again be one of the real heavyweights of the competition.

For the Royal underrated leg spinner Fergus McCosker, if available for every match, could be a real chance of taking out top honours with the ball. Coffeys Colts, last year’s A grade runners up, will be hosting Coffeys at Snowy Oval, They are both very strong teams - a real youth vs experience match.
The Colts will be looking to Campbell Hillman to back up his efforts of leading run scorer to keep the Colts up as the team to beat this season, Coffeys will be looking to the wily off spin of Mark Williams to keep them in the top grade this year.

Aussie will lose key players Locky Schofield and Sam Williams for large parts of the season and will rely heavily on Ben Shaw to post big scores to keep them in the race. If the Aussie manage to get all the big guns available for the finals a hatrick of a grade premierships is not out of the question.

Stay up to date with all the happenings, results and news on Monaro cricket at http://monarodca.nsw.cricket.com. au