After languishing for some time, the sport has enjoyed a local resurgence in the past five years and the senior Tenterfield and District team is starting to see that experience come through, according to team captain Dave Fowler.

Tenterfield will play in the Stanthorpe and District competition against four other teams on Saturdays starting October 8. Most matches will be played in Stanthorpe with a few throughout the season on home turf.

Players in this squad are selected from a local competition between five sides playing on a Wednesday evening at Shirley Park from October 12, starting from 6pm (and finishing under lights).

Fowler said the competition was well-supported with each of the teams sponsored by local businesses and easily having 11 players to take the field. Still Fowler said the club is always happy to welcome new players, both men and women.

“There are a bunch of young fellas in their late teens and early 20s that had little cricket growing up. They’re starting to hold their own against the older players that have experience at a higher level.”

Some of this hard-won experience will come into play in a New England over-40s round robin competition to be hosted by Tenterfield on October 9, with teams coming from Armidale, Inverell and Glen Innes.

Local cricket begins with five-to-seven-year-olds in the soft-ball Milo In2criket skills program held on Thursday afternoons from 3.15pm at Sir Henry Parkes Memorial School. Once they gain confidence, have some basic skills and hand/eye coordination they play matches under the T20 Blast program, although still with a soft ball.

Currently there are insufficient numbers for a youth competition but half-a-dozen keen players –including Fowler’s son Tom – travel to Stanthorpe each Saturday to play in the hard-ball competition there.

“They put on the helmet, pads and gloves and the full whites,” Fowler said.