Herbert River a star factory
Meet the ‘mind blowing’ small NQ cricket club
A SMALL but growing North Queensland junior cricket club has hit another six with a disproportionately high number of representative players.
In total, 18 junior players from the Herbert River Cricket Club have made representative sides, including a staggering seven girls selected in the North Queensland Cricket Association U13 girls side.
Herbert River Cricket Association junior co-ordinator Andrew Bye said the
selections built on the club’s success of last year winning the Junior Initiative of the Year in the Cricket Australia Community Cricket Awards for 2022.
Bye said a dedicated team of parents, supporters and sponsors had contributed to helping the club claim the prestigious nationwide award for the development of cricket in Australia.
The club was now reaping the benefits with the representative selections, he said.
“It’s been a massive part of it because as you can see
we’ve had more players joining the club this year.”
The Herbert River Cricket Club hosts its junior games at Butler Park, Ingham, on Friday afternoons, with four fields occupied with teams from Master Blasters up to two colts sides that square off against each other each week.
Four of the colts players, Kyle Aili, Jack Butcher, Pierce Carrara and Brandon Hamilton-kaurila, are representing North Queensland Schoolboys in Bundaberg this week.
“It’s absolutely brilliant
to rock up to Butler Park and see all four fields being utilised by kids all playing cricket, it’s fantastic,” he said.
“In the past, junior cricket was really dying here and numbers were dwindling and as you can see we’ve been able to build that up and we’ve now got a really great atmosphere, there’s music in the background, we’ve got great food and cold drinks.
“The kids all enjoy each other’s company and the game will keep blossoming.”
In addition to the quality
of the boys, Bye said the club prided itself on the development of the women’s game with a number of girls making rep sides.
He said seven U13 girls making the Flames squad of 12 was likely unprecedented.
“I’ve been involved in cricket for many, many years and I can’t say I know the ins and outs of every representative team.
“But I think it must be close to a record, particularly for a small club such as Ingham, to have seven representatives out of 12 players is absolutely mind blowing.”