All brothers – howzat?
THERE have been copious amounts of brotherly love flowing through the ranks of the Queens Cricket Club this Kookaburra Cup season.
The reason is simple: The Centaurs boast an unusual statistic of having three sets of brothers playing in their firstgrade side – and all seven siblings will be involved in a semifinal against Alberton today and tomorrow at Arthur Angove Park in Musgrave Hill.
There are the Wintons (Sam, 28, Jack, 25, and Harry, 23), the Spargos (Jimmy, 31, and Mick, 28) and the Kelly gang (Jaimon, 27, and Jordan, 25).
Which leaves Queens with five “orphans” in the side to tackle Alberton.
“It is unusual to have so many sets of brothers in the one team, I certainly can’t remember anything like it,” one of those “orphans”, captain Mick Durbridge, said.
“I can remember at a club I played for in England there was a photo on the wall. It was from a long time ago and apparently they were all Illingworths and they were related but I don’t know if they were brothers.”
The Spargos hail from Townsville and have made their way to Queens via a variety of avenues after originally being with the Gold Coast Dolphins.
Jimmy has been a huge hit for the Centaurs and has scored 740 runs at 74 average this year.
The Kellys hail from Ulverstone in the North West Tasmania Cricket Association and are both into their second season at Arthur Angove Park.
“We love it here at Queens, it’s very similar to back at Ulverstone,” Jaimon said.
“It is unusual to have so many sets of brothers in the one team but everybody at this club treats everybody else like a brother anyway.”
The Winton trio are steeped in Queens culture. They have played with the Centaurs since their junior days and their father Brad was a star in the 1980s.
Sam and Jack have both played with the Dolphins and also had stints with Toombul in Brisbane but inevitably found their way back “home”.
Queens are hot favourites to advance to the grand final over an Alberton side loaded with experience.
Queens have not lost since Round 5 and among their wins since was one over the Force at Alberton.
The other semi-final is between Surfers Paradise (second) and Broadbeach-Robina (third) at David Johnston Oval. Surfers go into the sudden-death encounter in form but the reverse applies to Broadbeach, who go into the clash on the back of two losses.
Both finals start at 12.15 today and tomorrow and, in the event of rain, a game is “on” if both sides get to face a minimum of 20 overs each.