Rivalry heats up in Shield
The two top Toowoomba teams will come face to face in the opening game of the Shaeffer Shield this weekend.
Darling Downs City, coached by Kent Reimers, boasts a list of experience players.
“We are a fairly stable team from years gone by, the core group has pretty much stayed the same,” Reimers said.
Matt Dennis will captain the team with Blake Anderson in the top order and Queensland Country player Shaun McCarthy leading the bowlers.
Reimers is also excited to welcome South Queensland U21 stars Darcy Murphy and Matt Hallas to the team.
Young Dan Anderson from Highfields Railways has also received a late call up after Daly Martin was forced to withdraw due to injury.
“He has had a late state to the season, it’s taken him a few games to get back into swing of things but he’s good to go now,” Reimers said.
“He is bowling some pretty good fast balls at the moment.”
While bowling has traditionally been City’s strength, Reimers said the
return of Kris Glass could pack a punch in the batting order.
“He’s just a quality all-rounder,” Reimers said.
Teammates become rivals in the Shaeffer Shield this weekend.
“I would imagine it will be a bit of a grudge match, I’m sure country would love to knock us off,” Reimers said.
However City’s biggest test will be against defending champions Gold Coast on Sunday.
“We were undefeated last year and they won on bonus
points,” Reimers said.
“This is a big match for us, hopefully we can settle the score.”
It has been a few years since Country have played City but coach Glen Neuendorf said the team is quietly confident after a bit of restructuring.
Dual captains Shanley Neuendorf and Matt Elford will lead the team this weekend.
“They are taking over the responsibility from Chris Gillam, he’s going to sit back and concentrate on his
batting,” Neuendorf said.
This year Country welcome six players from the Lockyer Valley including big hitter Dan Pollock.
Corey Teske will open the bowling and is also handy with the bat, scoring 97-not out last week.
Neuendorf said Country are lacking a little bit in the batting order but boasts a very strong bowling line up.
“Hopefully we can knock them over and the batsmen can do the job,” he said.
The coach predicted some in-house rivalry between the
Northern Brothers Diggers teammates across the two Toowoomba teams.
“Shanley (Country co-captain) played for them a couple of years ago and in the Cavaliers so there will be a bit of niggle between him and Blake Anderson,” eh said.
All players across the six teams competing in the Shield will by vying for selection in the South Queensland representative team to take on North Queensland at the end of this month.