After struggling for numbers in the first match of the season, the Cootamundra representative cricket side looks to be close to full strength for the opening round of the prestigious Stribley Shield competition which kicks off this weekend.
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Cootamundra will play Gundagai at Albert Park on Sunday and will have close to a full complement of players, a vastly different situation to last weekend when the team scrambled to get 11 players together for the trip to Walla Walla to face Brocklesby.
Despite struggling for numbers, the team came away from the Walla Walla trip with a win, giving them confidence heading into the first Stribley match.
According to rep side captain Dean Bradley, being short on numbers in the first game may actually benefit the team moving forward.
Brocklesby took advantage of Cootamundra’s depleted bowling stock and managed to bat out their 50 overs, forcing Cootamundra to stay in the field for a full innings.
“That extra hour from the 40 to the 50 overs can really knock a few blokes around so on the weekend to field 50 overs so early in the season was really good to get those miles in your legs.
“In years past we might have played four or five rep games and not seen the 40th over,” Bradley said.
Past Stribley Shield meetings between these two sides have seen Cootamundra hand Gundagai some severe beatings but Bradley is hesitant to label the match a foregone conclusion.
“I’ve learned over the years never to call anyone soft because cricket’s a funny game, you never know what might happen.
“They never forfeit, they always play so you never know,” he said.
A win in the first round of the Stribley is important for Cootamundra as, in their next two games, they face the two sides who contested last season’s Stribley Shield grand final.
In round two, Cootamundra plays Yass at Albert Park and in round three they make the trip down the Olympic Highway to face Wagga.
Getting a win under the belt early will be essential heading into the later rounds of the competition.
In the other Stribley Shield matches this weekend Wagga face Yass in Wagga in a rematch of last year’s grand final.
For the first time in four years the competition returns to a six-team format as Young make their way back into the Stribley after a 35 year absence, they play Temora in Young.
The Cootamundra vs Gundagai match begins at 10am on Sunday at Albert Park.
