Cricket stalls for Cowboys

TOWNSVILLE Cricket has put a halt to this weekend’s senior matches to allow players to watch tomorrow’s NRL grand final.

Competition organisers made the decision to postpone two- day matches in first, reserve and third grade, with the fixtures to be now played as a pair of one- dayers later in the season.

Fourth grade games will go ahead as planned, but will finish early enough for players to watch the big game.

Townsville Cricket senior committee chair Wayne Seri said many clubs were also impacted by player shortages due to representative commitments and the long weekend.

“The Bulls Masters T20 2017 Country Challenge is on in Mackay and a dozen A graders from across the clubs will be away,” Seri said on Townsville Cricket’s Facebook page.

“The good thing about the option to change these games to one dayers is its limited impact on the competitions over the season.

“Clubs still get to play each other the same number of times.”

Wests are leading this season’s A Grade competition after two rounds with two wins from as many games.

The season featured an opening round of upsets, with defending premiers Suburban Parks suffering an outright loss to Norths, and last placed Saints pushed Wests in last weekend’s tightly contested Round 2 fixture.