BOYD BITES BACK
Victorian survives snake bite to win title
Not even a snake bite on the eve of captaining Victoria Country could stop Ben Boyd this year.
The Vics ended a 13-year drought to win the Australian Country Cricket Championships in Toowoomba on Saturday, beating Western Australia in the grand final — a reverse of last year’s result.
For Ben, who first captained Victoria in 2016 and plays with Allansford in the Warrnambool Cricket Association, there was “relief” after winning the final following a series of near misses in previous years.
“It has been such a big goal,” he said.
But it was a sleep-deprived captain who arrived in Toowoomba,
courtesy of a snake bite on New Year’s Day, the day before the team was due to head to Queensland.
In a stroke of good fortune, it was a “dry bite” — no venom was injected — but he was kept under surveillance from noon to midnight, getting out of hospital just in time to make the dash to Melbourne to make the flight.
“I was unlucky, but lucky, in the end,” said Ben, who works for stockfeed company Ridley.
“It was a last-minute job just to tidy up for some fly treatment on some calves. I didn’t really feel it to be honest, I felt something but I was too busy hustling between the cattle then the little boys, the eight and the 12-year-olds, saw the snake so we backed out. I was about to change and put on some rubber boots instead of the elastic-sided boots and then I noticed the blood spots on my lower calf.”
Batting first in the grand final, Victoria were all out for 194 in the 49th over.
Boyd, who finished with figures of 3-35, played a leading role in his side’s victory reducing Western Australian to 2-5 early in their innings.
Four Victorian players — Nathan Walsh, Lee Stockdale, Jordan Moran and Jack Wrigglesworth — were named in the team of the carnival.
Meanwhile, the Victoria Country women’s team was unable to defend its 2018-19 title, winning just three of its seven matches to finish fifth.