ORANA Highway Patrol Senior Constable Luke Trudgett will protect and serve his state in a different way next month.
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Dubbo's Trudgett will travel to Auckland to play in the New South Wales police cricket team in the Australia New Zealand Police Cricket Championship (ANZPCC).
He plans to protect the reputation of NSW police and earn some bragging rights and Trudgett said he gives his team a good chance of that.
"We should do pretty well- we've got a very strong side," he said.
"We didn't do too well in Queensland two years ago, but we should do well in New Zealand."
The 35-year-old former Rugby all-rounder will travel across the Tasman for his third championship on February 1 to 7.
The NSW team, consisting of three country players from Lismore, Griffith and Dubbo, will take on police cricket teams from Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and New Zealand.
Former Paramatta cricketer Jason Kelly and Sydney Grade Cricket's Gary James will be key players for NSW Police.
New Zealand will be the major hurdle in NSW's quest for the championship, Trudgett said.
"They can call in fresh players each day because it's their home turf," he said.
"We go over with 18 or 19 players and have to stay with them for the whole tournament."
The medium-paced bowler, righthand batsman, captained Rugby to a Kelly Cup victory in 2001/02.
Trudgett was also a passionate Dubbo Roos player and has also represented NSW police three times playing rugby union.
In that time he won two Australian championships.
The Australia New Zealand Police Cricket Championship is of course a great networking and social event, Trudgett said.
"It's a great experience and I'm constantly learning from them," he said.
"At first I signed up for police sports just to get out of the trucks, but once I started I really enjoyed playing police sports and still do.
"We all get along- we play for sheep stations on field, but off the field we all have a chat."
Trudgett said he would like to thank the sponsors of the NSW police team, without them the team "would not cope."
"Thank you to The Police Association, the Police bank, Golden West Holden, Civic Hotel at Lismore, the Dubbo RSL Club, Grassroots Turf Care and MAXXIA," he said.