THE wet weather threatened to ruin the start of the girls PSSA Cricket State Championships on Monday but all matches still went ahead and some outstanding play was on show.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The rain on Sunday night meant all matches were transferred from the turf pitches to the synthetic at Lady Cutler and John McGrath in the morning.
Dubbo City Council then came out to help and worked all morning on the turf pitches meaning three of the afternoon games were able to be played at the Victoria Park grounds.
Each team played two matches, as they will on Tuesday and Wednesday before Thursday's finals, and Western PSSA convenor Jordan Moran was delighted in what he saw.
"There's some very good cricket, I haven't got to sit down too long but there's been some good scores and even a five-for," he said.
"Council have been nothing but outstanding and even after we transferred to synthetic they were working on No.1 and when I went past at one stage there were eight blokes out there trying to dry the pitch off."
Home side Western couldn't quite begin in the perfect fashion as they went down to South Coast.
Western restricted South Coast to 3-81 from their allotted overs but never really got going in the chase.
Western were bowled out for 49 and will be looking for improved performances in the coming days.
Sydney North were one of the most impressive winners when they scored 0-159 during a 76-run victory over Hunter.
Sydney West, Polding and North West were other sides which produced some eye-catching performances.
The rain may have a say again in the coming fixtures with more predicted, possibly robbing locals of the chance to see future national players in action.
"You only need to look in the record books in both the girls and boys to see names of state and international cricketers," he said, before speaking about one of day one's stars.
"There was a girl in the Sydney West side who scored 50-odd this morning then came out and took five-for and then this afternoon scored another 50.
"Apparently she's already playing women's second grade in Sydney and getting runs and she took four wickets last week so that's great at 12 and I'm sure she's someone the selectors are looking at closely."
During day two action on Tuesday Western are scheduled to take on Mackillop at 9am before they have the bye in the afternoon.
