THUMBS DO WN FOR SUB PARKS’ S TAR DIX ON

SUB Parks’ Townsville cricket title defence has taken a blow with bowling spearhead Justin Dixon breaking his thumb playing for Queensland Country in a warm- up game in Perth this week.

The paceman was gearing up for his second stint in maroon but the mishap has ruled him out of the Queensland Country Championships. He had surgery in Perth yesterday, and still hopes to be fit in time for the local cricket finals.

“I’ve never broken a bone before and I couldn’t have picked a worse time,” Dixon said.

“It got hit back at me and I couldn’t get my hand out the way and it broke my thumb.

“Finals are about ten weeks away, I’ll be pushing it but that will be the goal.”

Dixon is the second leading wicket- taker in the local competition with 27 at an average of 14.37. Dixon’s teammates were looking to continue their dominance of the local Twenty20 competition when their campaign began against Wests at Tony Ireland Stadium last night.

Local trio Stephanie Baldwin, Stephanie Morgan and Ash Spina were chosen for the Queensland women’s team to compete in the Australian Country Championships, which begin at Geraldton in Western Australia this weekend.

Townsville Cricket has introduced a second tier competition for the first time to allow lower graders a bigger chance to try their hand at the game’s quickest format.

“The main reason was to give more players the opportunity,” Townsville Cricket president Peter Fry said.

“We’ve got the tier one, which is predominately first grade and reserve grade. But we know the popularity of T20 so we want to give the lower graders the chance.

“We’ve also gone back to the format we had in 2009 and 2010 when we ran it over a three week block, and there’s none of the normal first grade cricket on until after the Goldfields Ashes.

“It gives an opportunity for players who can’t commit for a full season to play for a few weeks.

A grade games will be played at Riverway Stadium, with second tier clashes at Endeavour Oval.

A grade draw ( all games at Riverway Stadium)

Today: Norths v Brothers ( 10am), Sub Parks v Wanderers ( 2.30pm), Wests v Brothers ( 7pm)

Tomorrow: Wests v Norths ( 2.30pm)