52 — Centralian Advocate, Thursday July 5, 2012

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53rd AnnualTh

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Alice Springs

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SPORT

Winning runCRICKET

Warren Thomson

Sam Dick and Tom Nixon have starred for the Alice Springs under-13 side at the Mid-Year Carnivalin Darwin this week Picture: BARRY SKIPSEY

ALICE Springs has got off to agreat start to the Mid-Year Car-nival with their under-13 teamstill undefeated after winningall three twenty20 games andwinning a 40-over game.

They have a strong chance ofwinning the carnival, but stillhave to perform well in the40-over game today against Dar-win Bulls and finish the tourna-ment strongly tomorrow in a40-over game against DarwinSharks.

Sam Dick and captain TomNixon have batted superbly dur-ing the opening four games, butit’s been a great team effort withseveral players stepping up andperforming well, which haspleased coach Sean Huddle.

Huddle said: ‘‘I’m ecstatic.They are far exceeding my ex-pectations and are playing reallygood cricket.

‘‘Sam and Tom have battedreally well but, in the gamewhere we scored 165 they didn’tget a bat, and Aiden Hookeyscored a half century and RyanBurns and Mitch Gridley also

batted really well.‘‘Young Tom Kelaart took a

three-for in our morning gameon Tuesday and, in our after-noon game, Harry Lambley tooka four-for.

‘‘The whole team has jelledwell together and I couldn’t askfor any more from them.

‘‘We gave the team a well-deserved rest yesterday after-noon and took them into town,and hopefully they can keepperforming well during the nexttwo days.’’

Alice Springs got off to a goodstart on Monday, defeating theDarwin Rays in a 40-over game,by five wickets.

They bowled out Darwin Raysfor 186 off 38.2 overs, with Dickgetting 3/34 off eight overs andLambley also bowling well to get3/33 off 6.2 overs.

The Eagles lost early wicketsbut a superb 63 not out fromcaptain Tom Nixon guided AliceSprings to victory.

Nixon was well supported byDick, who scored 40 and had a124-run partnership with Nixon.

Kelaart, who is one of two10-year-old players on the team,showed off his talents in the

first twenty20 game on Tuesday,taking 3/23 to restrict the Dar-win Bulls to 5/122, and Dick (50retired) and Nixon (44 not out)batted superbly as Alice Springswon the game by nine wicketswith four overs remaining.

In their second twenty20 gameon Tuesday, Hookey scored ahalf century and Burns (47) andGridley (32) also contributed toguide Alice Springs to 5/165against Darwin Sharks.

Superb bowling from Lambleydidn’t give the Sharks a chance,taking 4/10 to restrict them to6/78 off their 20 overs.

Alice Springs then made itthree-from-three in the shortestfor of the game by defeatingDarwin Rays by 22 runs yester-day.

They posted a competitivescore of 6/135, with Dick leadingthe way with a half centurybefore a great bowling effortrestricted Darwin Rays to 5/113.

THE SQUAD: Sam Dick, Josh Lay, RyanBurns, Harry Lambley, Mitch Gridley,Regan White, Tom Kelaart, Banjo Waring,Tom Nixon (captain), Aiden Hookey,Marcus Williamson, Ned Syme, SeanHuddle (coach) and Shannan Ryan (man-ager).

Stokes shinesSOFTBALL

Dale Fletcher

CENTRALIAN soft-ball product VanessaStokes lived out a child-hood dream on Tues-day.

Stokes was the lead-off pitcher in Austra-lia’s 3-0 World Cup ofSoftball VII final loss tot h e U S A i nOaklahoma.

She said: ‘‘It was agreat game but unfor-tunately we couldn’tcome away with thewin.

‘‘I felt good out there,but I was very nervousand very proud.

‘‘It’s a real shame wedidn’t win.’’

Stokes pitched thefirst four innings forthe Aussie Spirit, allow-ing three hits and tworuns with six strikeouts.

The USA startedstrongly, scoring tworuns in the opening

inning, putting theAustralians on theback foot.

Stokes was replacedat the start of the fifthi n n i n g b y A i m e eMurch, who conceededa home run in heropening inning on themound.

She said: ‘‘We didn’tbat too well as a teamand didn’t put enoughpressure on them.’’

Australia won fouro u t o f t h e i r s i xmatches, losing to theUSA on both occasions.

Stokes pitched twoinnings for three strikeouts in the AussieSpirit’s 6-2 win overPuerto Rico in a poolgame on June 30.

The World Cup ofSoftball VII was awarm-up event for theISF XIII World Cham-pionships, which startsin Yukon, Canada onJuly 13.

She said: ‘‘The teamis working well togeth-er and we are looking

forward to the WorldChampionships.’’

Vanessa’s mother,Fiona Stokes, said shehas had a lot of com-ments from the localcommunity regardingher daughter.

She said: ‘‘Peoplehave come up andasked how Vanessa hasbeen going, and the in-terest has been great.

‘‘I couldn’t watch thefinal but I was kept upto date on the com-puter and I was gettingphone calls from familywho were watching thegame.’’

Fiona will travel toCanada next week towatch Vanessa play inYukon, and said it willbe a proud moment.

‘‘It’s unfortunatethat not everyone willget to go and watch herplay but it’s going to bea real thrill to see heron the mound,’’ Fionasaid.

Kids to star in Top EndCRICKET

Warren Thomson

A L I C E S p r i n g s ’ semerging cricket starswill be in Darwin nextweek, competing in theunder-15 and under-17Mid Year Carnivalwhich starts on Mon-day.

Both squads are fullof talent, with severalunder-17 players play-ing A grade cricket dur-ing the recent AliceSprings Cricket Associ-ation season.

But the under-15team is also full of tal-ent and will be coachedby 2011-2012 A gradeCricketer of the YearRob Kensey.

NT Cricket AliceSprings development

officer Phil Lovell said:‘‘Three young players tokeep an eye out for areSam Dick and TomNixon, and MatthewGreen who is fromTennant Creek.

‘ ‘All players im-pressed many earlier inthe year with their per-formances in the NTunder-13 team at thenational carnival inCobram, Victoria.

‘‘This side, under theleadership of RobKensey and JeremyBigg, are very wellcoached and I think theteam will be very com-petitive in Darwin.’’

Dick and Nixon willalready have somegame time under theirbelts before the under-15 tournament as theyare playing in the

under-13 team thisweek.

With several regularA grade players in theunder-17 team, such asBen Ellis, AndrewPilbrow, Ned Gaynorand under-17 captainJayden Dick, the under-17 team are also ex-pected to do well inDarwin.

Lovell said: ‘‘ForHarry Weeks, NickWhyte and JaydenDick, this is an import-ant carnival as theypush for spots in thetraining squad for theNT under-17 team.

‘‘After representingthe NT under-15 teamearlier this year, and abreakout season in theAlice Springs CricketAssociation A gradecompetition, we are ex-

p e c t i n g A n d r e wPilbrow to have a bigcarnival.

‘‘I expect this group tobe very competitive inDarwin.’’

UNDER-15 SQUAD: Sam

Dick, Daniel Geppa, Hayden

Bigg, Lachlan Saunders, Tom

Nixon, Tabatha Saville, Shane

Van Luenen, Jack Anstey,

Mark Robertson (captain),

Austin Robertson, Travis

Clarke, Matthew Green, Rob

Kensey (coach), Jeremy Bigg

(manager).

UNDER-17 SQUAD: Jayden

Dick (captain), Jacob Dick,

Nick Whyte, Ben Ellis, Andrew

Pilbrow, Cameron Brown, Ned

Gaynor, Dustin Hunter, Monty

Nixon, Toby White, Daniel

Clarke, Harry Weeks, Kim Dick

(coach), John Pilbrow (man-

ager).