By Lachlan Onions
THE Millicent and Naracoorte cricket competition is set to resume this weekend with nine teams to battle from the South East battling for supremacy.
After the Millicent and Naracoorte competitions merged last season, the amalgamated league kicks off on Saturday for Round 1.
Millicent and Naracoorte Cricket Association vice-president Michael McGurk is confident ahead of this summer and said “everything is in place reasonably well,” after a long offseason.
Inclement weather across the region has meant it has taken slightly longer for turf pitches to be ready for the summer of cricket but this is an issue which Millicent and Naracoorte cricketers will not have to contend with.
“We have all hard wickets, so unless it rains on the day, there isn’t any issue,” McGurk said.
All eyes will be on Rendelsham this season as it looks to defend its premiership from last season.
“Rendelsham will be the team to beat I think, they won it last year and have some very good cricketers between the ages of 20 and 30,” he said.
“Millicent Blackcaps have got a fairly young side and they played off in the grand final last year so they will be good again.”
McGurk also said Mount Burr and the two Naracoorte sides will be the teams to watch out for.
There will also be some fresh faces with new teams set to mark centre on Saturday.
“Kingston went into a recession last year but they have entered a new team this year, so we will pick them up again which is good,” McGurk said.
“The Millicent Footballers and Beachport Furner have had to merge just due to a lack of numbers.”
McGurk hopes more teams can join the competition in the future.
“We had a bit of interest from Padthaway – they folded last year and were trying to get a team together but they couldn’t find enough numbers,” he said.
“Edenhope were the same, they have been folded for a couple of years and were trying to get a team together as well.”
McGurk said moving forward, if these teams can find enough players, they will be welcomed into the competition.
“It is a bit of a shame, once teams go into recession the players tend to go elsewhere and it can be hard to get them back together,” he said.
The first ball of the summer is set to be bowled at 12.30pm on Saturday with four games across the South East.
Footballers Furner Beachport will host the Millicent Blackcaps, Kingston will host Mount Burr, Rendelsham hosts Lucindale and Robe will host the Naracoorte Townies.
