Queanbeyan cricket’s back to best

The club hadn’t taken home the trophy since the 2009/2010 season but a dominant summer from the lower grades, featuring players as young as 14 and 15, got them over the line.

Those performances were particularly vital considering the poor showing by their first grade team who did not qualify for the two-day finals.

The second and third grade sides were undefeated through the regular season with the latter winning the recent two day competition.

Club president Rohan Ditton said it wasn’t all about the youngsters.

“The pleasing thing about the third and fourth grade is that there are a lot of young kids, so a mix of senior players plus some younger kids are coming through the grades,” Ditton said.

Led by club stalwart Peter Solway, the third grade also won the one day competition with two handy 15 year old bowlers.

“Jack Allen is a leg spinner and Abhinash Kumar is an opening bowler, and both have got a lot of promise,” Ditton said.

And the youth continues to the first grade where Solway’s sons Dean and Mark have matured, as well as opening bowler Tyler Van Luin.

“The Solway boys have played a lot in the first grade now and they are getting more experienced and better as they get older,” Ditton said.

These players combined with the emergence of players such as Jack Manners and Sam Frost, both only 14 and playing in the fifth grade, will give the club president plenty of recruitment-induced headaches over the off season.

“We will keep that mix of senior guys and the younger kids in the lower grades, we're looking at a couple of guys from the Sydney grade to come down for first grade maybe but it's still early days,” Ditton said.

“But we're happy with the players and the side we've got, so if we have to go around with the same team next year we've got no problem in doing that.”