BEST PLAYERS GO HEAD-TO-HEAD

Cricketers will then join forces for rep games

TOWNSVILLE’S best cricketers will go head-to-head again this week in A Grade before they join forces for another weekend of representative action in a week.

The North Queensland Cricket Association named three teams on Thursday, including the North Queensland Open Men’s team, North Queensland U21 Men’s team and the Country Northern Open Women’s team.

The teams play matches in Mackay on November 5 and 6, but a number of representative teammates will face off first in Townsville Cricket this weekend.

Round 6 is headlined by a top four clash between Wests and Suburban Parks, who sit in second and fourth place respectively.

Wests skipper Jack Raffles said his team knows they’re in for a serious match anytime they play against Subs.

“They lost a few players but they’ve still got a lot of good players in their roster, they’re certainly a really strong side,” Raffles said.

“Most of them are blokes we’ve played against pretty regularly, so we’re trying to stick to our plans that we’ve used previously to try and constrict them and not give them the boundary balls that they are probably sweating on.”

Five players from the two clubs have been named in the NQ Open team to play in the second round of the Northern Zone Championships.

Raffles, Lachlan Ford and Sam Lowry represent the Wests contingent of the team, while Jamie Heit and Justin Dixon from Sub Parks were also selected.

Raffles said he was looking forward to playing with Heit and Dixon next week.

“When we play against (Subs), there’s always a pretty competitive nature between us, but we’ve always had the luxury between us and Subs that we’ve always got on pretty well off the field,” Raffles said.

“When you go to these rep rounds and you’re playing alongside them, it’s a good changeup to play with these blokes that we get along with for a change.”

Meanwhile, undefeated Norths take on winless Northern Beaches at the Murray Sporting Complex.

In Round 1, Northern Beaches kept Norths to their second lowest total this season, bowling them out for 117 in 26 overs – the only lower score was when they comfortably chased down Wanderers’ lowly 64run total in Round 4.

The Barra will need to be at their best to get the better of Norths, who had five players selected for NQ rep teams: Ryan Mccarron and Sam Collingwood in the Open team, and Cody Sadler, Bingen Balanzategui and Jack Pickering in the U21 team.

Over at Gill Park, NQ Open and Brothers skipper Craig Mcelligott comes up against promising Wanderers all-rounder Ryan Eaton with Wanderers fighting to keep in touch with fourth-placed Sub Parks.