Past put to bed

MOVING FORWARD: East Gambier cricket captain Alex Hentschke looks forward to the new Barber Shield cricket season, with a couple of new inclusions to bolster his side. Picture: TREVOR JACKSON

By Trevor Jackson

IT would probably be a fair statement to say East Gambier underperformed in last season’s Hoggies Wines Barber Shield grand final.

East had North Sportsman’s on the ropes, all out for just 111 runs leaving a reachable target for victory.

However, as it panned out the Bulldogs were bundled out for just 89 in the 55th over.

For returning captain Alex Hentschke the result hurt.

“It is never nice to lose, especially in a final,” Hentschke said.

“We probably did it three times against them last year, we bowled well and kept them to a low score, then got bundled out under 100 chasing not much over 100.

“It is something we will look at this year and probably have to go about it a bit differently.

“Hopefully we have learnt from it.”

With that game behind them the Bulldogs are keen to start the new season, with a positive vibe around training sessions and a couple of returning players to the A Grade ranks.

“The feel around the club has been really good,” Hentschke said.

“We have had good numbers early – with no one playing footy I think there has been that keenness to get back out and start playing some sport.

“We picked up fairly well in the off-season, with a few players lined up at the end of last season who were keen to come up.”

Those players include Kevin Thomson who steps back up to A Grade after a stint in C Grade, Travis Younghusband and Leigh Von Duve.

Von Duve was set to play last season after heading across from Glencoe but an injury forced him out.

Ben Clark is recovering from injury and will not take to the field until after the Christmas break, but basically the team is set and ready to go.

The Bulldogs are also buoyed by the fact young players are putting their hands up for selection, creating plenty of depth at Scott Park, which Henschke said is a real positive.

“I think we are in a good a spot with some good 16, 17, 18 year olds who are just hitting their straps,” he said.

“That extra sixth months makes a huge difference at that age.

“Hopefully building into Christmas and after that they develop even more and find the repetition of hitting balls brings them along another step.

“We will still have a couple of kids who will start in the B Grade but are pushing to put their hand up and play in the ones.

“The idea this year is to have that rotation.

“If there are blokes making runs and taking wickets in the twos they are putting pressure on the blokes who are starting in the ones.”

East will be tested first up with a home game against North tomorrow but Hentschke said there had not been a lot of focus on the grand final result.

“We are just going at our own stride,” he said.

“We are trying not to think too much about last year – it seems such a long time ago with everything that has been going on.

“We will just leave that in the past and work towards this year.”

With the warm weather recently Henschke said the turf wicket at Scott Park will be in good condition for the opening clash tomorrow.

He said plenty of time had gone into the preparation and he looked forward to a good day of cricket.

“We have rolled the pitch a fair bit so it should be a belter deck,” Hentschke said.

“It should be a good start to the year.”