DOUBLE MILESTONE NOW IN REACH FOR WANDERER
WANDERERS cricketer Ryan Eaton is on the cusp of stamping his name among the greatest allrounders Townsville has ever seen.
Eaton needs just 37 runs on Saturday against Brothers to crack 2000 A Grade runs since his 2012 debut and is three wickets away from claiming his 50th scalp, in his 104th game.
Only six cricketers in the MyCricket era (2009-present) have reached both milestones: Sub Parks’ Jamie Heit, Saints’ Matthew Burton, Wests’ Patrick Hagenbach and Shaun Curnow, Brothers’ Herbie Heuir and Norths’ Gareth Sim.
Eaton would become only the 15th Townsville cricketer to reach 2000 runs since the introduction of online scoring.
The 25-year-old one-club man has played for Wanderers for the past 20 years and said he was stoked to be nearing his second millennium of runs for the club.
“I’ve been around for a while now so it’s pretty cool to finally get close to that mark, fingers crossed I’ll be able to cross over it this week,” Eaton said.
“I’ve been at Wanderers since I was a kid, and started playing A Grade when I was 14 or 15 so I’ve played my fair share of games.”
Eaton has been in fine batting form in recent weeks – his past three scores are 46, 53 and 19 – but he knows he’ll have to face down a dominant bowling attack led by Herbie Heuir and Justin Rawlins to reach his batting milestone.
“We’re fully expecting Herbie and Justin to bowl the majority of their overs, as they did in the last game,” Eaton said.
“We will just need to talk to each other about being patient. They’re going to stay on their line and length, so we’ve just got to stay really patient and know we can bat all day and wait for our chances, and capitalise on them when they come.”
This is the final round before the Christmas break, and the final chance for teams to add to their points tally before the push to finals and the January-february rainfall sets in.
All five teams are still in the hunt for the A Grade premiership and Eaton said it was testament to the growing talent in the league.
“There are a lot of good teams with a lot of good players at the moment, so it makes cricket a lot more interesting,” Eaton said.
“Gone are the days where there were only one or two teams that could be title contenders for the year, it’s now four or five teams that can all put in performances on the day and win games of cricket.”
In the other Round 9 matchup, Suburban Parks host Wests at Riverway Stadium.
Subs are raring to go after a 21day break, while Wests are coming off a convincing win over Wanderers.
The Magpies bowled Wanderers out for 100 before declaring at 9/150, but Wanderers were able to dig in and defend their wickets until the end of the two-day match to prevent a bigger loss.
Wests also welcome back Sam Lowry and Lachlan Ford from representing North Queensland Country in Mackay.
Subs’ all-rounder Dan Gartrell is two wickets away from a milestone of his own, with his 150th wicket in Townsville Cricket beckoning.