INDOOR CRICKET
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The Country Cyclones have taken out the Country versus City indoor cricket title after two days of high class competition at Dubbo Sports World throughout the weekend.
Teams from Sydney and the ACT, ranging from under-13s right through to under-20s, converged on Dubbo to take part in the competition which is the major event ahead of next month's national championships staged by Cricket Australia.
The first match up saw the Cyclones, featuring a number of Dubbo players, take on the best from the ACT.
With the ACT not supplying an under-13s team the Cyclones under-13s took on the ACT Rockets under-15s side and despite going close in a number of skins, the Cyclones failed to match their talented and more experienced rivals.
The Cyclones had a better showing in the under-15s where they dominated the contest, collecting six of eight skins on their way to putting the NSW Country in a strong position for the series.
The under-17s put the icing on the cake with as they won and collected five skins in the process, giving the Cyclones an 11-5 series win over the ACT.
Sunday saw the Cyclones go up against the highly fancied Sydney Metro side and it was obvious how much work the Sydney side did together as they showed their skills in the field in the under-13s.
While Metro dominated much of the match the Cyclones got some points back as they won the last skin by a healthy 54-38.
In the under-15s the Metro side was very confident leading into the match but the Cyclones surprised them and won the match and collected three of the four points on offer in the process, leaving the series score at 4-all.
The under-13s struggled in their second match but it was all valuable experience for the Dan French-coached side and they improved as the match went on, even collecting two skins while the Don Skinner-coached under-15s upped the ante and put on a clinic, winning all four skins and helping Country collect the Country versus City title.
With City not bringing an under-17s side and the players needing to play before the Nationals, a pool consisting of the Cyclones under-17s, ACT under-20s, NSW under-20s and the Dubbo men's representative team.
Facing such a challenging group the Cyclones failed to match the skills of the Dubbo side in their first match but they regrouped against the ACT 20s and with some tight bowling they one three skins to one.
The last match was against the highly-fancied NSW 20s side but the Cyclones outclassed them to the point where the last NSW batting pair were restricted to 0 runs from their skin.
The Cyclones now have just four weeks to raise the level even further when they go to Adelaide to contest the Nationals.
The Dubbo contingency of Wade Burrowes, Marty Jeffrey, Tom Barber and Adlai Shipp in the under-17s; Ben Wheeler, Tom Nelson, Tom Atlee, Charlie Kempston and Thomas Graham in the under-15s and Mitch Lincoln, Mack Shipp, Paddy Nelson, Anthony Atlee and Conner Albert in the under-13s all performed at an extremely high level and are looking forward to the challenge ahead.