U17 Boys Tournament Results 2006

Sth Canty under-17s off to Australia

© The Timaru Herald | Saturday, 13 January 2007

Early on Monday the South Canterbury under-17 representative cricket players are due to fly out to Australia on a 10-day tour in and around Sydney.

The idea for this arose last season when the team played the Teals and Gunnedah from NSW.

Often this is the last year that South Canterbury representative teams have good numbers, as players either leave school and cannot commit the time, or leave for tertiary studies elsewhere.

As these players have largely been together since the Year 5 and 6 team days, the idea of them having a good sendoff appealed.

Coaches Peter McKnight and Bevan Guthrie have organised four games for the boys.

The team is an invitational one, with a couple of players replacing boys who have been selected to play for Canterbury in the regional tournament being held at the same time.

This conflict of timing was unfortunate, but unavoidable.

The boys themselves have helped significantly with fundraising for the trip – including helping out at a massive garage sale (where they donated lots of their own old toys and cricket gear); and sausage sizzles at various places.

Fundraising will need to continue after they return on January 24, as a large fundraising trailbike event which was to be held in March is proving more difficult to organise than first thought, with the land not now being available.

The touring team is: Tim Butler, Liam Crowley, Sam Devlin, Chris Hyde, Dillon Lees, Phillip Lill, Alex McKenzie, Tom McKnight, Hayden Mathews, Ben Miller, Zane Sanders, Tom Walsh, and Phillip Watson.