WINNING a representative tournament is a big enough achievement with an association team. It’s even more astounding doing so as an individual club.
That’s exactly what Nichols Point Cricket Club achieved last week as their under-14 girls went undefeated to win the Western Victoria Girls Shield against teams representing Ballarat, Geelong, Wimmera and more.
The Sunraysia Cricket Association had decided against sending a rep team to the event with issues surrounding COVID and travel, however Nichols Point sensed an opportunity.
After canvassing players and parents, the clubs approached the competition to see if a club could join in a regional competition and once they got the green light, they were off.
The girls and the supporting crew were expecting to have a good time again and good opposition and hopefully learn some new things to help their cricket. The last thing they expected was to be taking out the under-14 girls’ title.
It culminated with a six-wicket victory over Ballarat on Friday afternoon, and the Pointers rolling their opponents for 37 before finishing their contest 6/46.
Spinner Mackenzie Holy took a brilliant 4/5 while Lucinda Marks (13 not out) and Bronte Fryar (13) led the run-scoring.
Team manager Danuel Holy said the girls, coached by Jarryd Gahan, were “absolutely amazing”.
“We were just hoping to go away and play some cricket against some really good opposition,” he said.
“We have a passionate group of girls when it comes to their cricket so considering there had been some games washed out and the late start due to COVID, we wanted to give them the opportunity to play some more games.
“We didn’t have any expectations of winning games, let alone the whole thing but obviously because the girls play together they gelled really well and put in some exceptional performances.
“They were up against association teams, who have the best players from their competitions so to see the girls step up on the big stage was brilliant.”
The Pointers had three players inside the top 10 run scorers for the tournament in Levaka-Hope Kiriua-Gill (108 runs), Marks (84) and Fryar (75), while Alex Healy (nine wickets) Tatiana Kiriua-Gill (eight) and Holy (seven) were the top three wicket takers for the week.
“We’re just looking to grow the girls’ game,” Holy said.
“We spoke to Cricket Victoria and the head of the competition about our thoughts and potential plans and they were supportive, then we ran it by (SCA president) Mick Thomson and (SCA head of rep cricket) Tash Anstee.
“We had our parents and families jump on board at the opportunity which is awesome considering the current climate.”
