One Armstrong Creek and five Geelong Cricket Club young stars have been picked to represent the state at the under 19 national championships.
Armstrong Creek’s Grace Jones and Geelong’s Bronte Leishman have been picked in the Victorian Country squad for the Under 19 Female National Championships which will be held in Adelaide, while Josh Garner, Liam Blackford, Tom Scott and Vincent Huf will represent Victoria Country at the boys’ tournament in Queensland.
Jones has taken 17 wickets for the Bellarine Peninsula Cricket Association Titans’ Men’s A Grade side this season at an average of 15.35.
Geelong Cricket Club coach Nick Speak will also coach the boys’ Victorian Country squad with the help of Victorian contracted player Xavier Crone as assistant coach.
Both national championships will take place simultaneously from Thursday, April 7 to April 14.
For Garner the national championships will be the second major tournament of the summer, after representing Australia at the ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean in January.
Garner played three games in the green and gold, taking three wickets and making 16 runs.
The fast bowler has also played nine Premier Cricket firsts games for the Cats this season, taking 13 wickets at an average of 24.69.
He will be joined in the squad by Blackford, who has been an important piece of the Cats’ firsts team this season with the bat and behind the stumps.
Across his 15 firsts games this season, he had hit 440 runs at an average of 33.85, with a top score of 97 against Frankston Peninsula last Saturday.
Also selected were Scott, who has averaged 25.5 with the bat across 15 games in the seconds, and Huf, who spent most of the season in the seconds but broke through for three firsts games this season.
Leishman was one of the standout bowlers for the Cats’ inaugural women’s Premier Cricket team, taking 11 wickets at an average of 21.64 from 12 games in the seconds.
Cricket Victoria emerging player performance manager Tom Evans said the players were part of a “very exciting” squad representing Victoria.
“It will be a great opportunity for these players to showcase their skills,” he said.
“Unfortunately, this age group have had limited interstate exposure over the last couple of years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so I’m sure they are all looking forward to representing Victoria and going head-to-head with best under 19 players around Australia.
“With the National Championships moved to April it has been great to see players play a full season of Victorian Premier Cricket, along with our training program and trial games to put their name forward for selection.”
