Guyra’s under 16s are gearing up for their fourth straight junior cricket grand final when they suit up to play The Armidale School in Saturday’s decider. The game is tipped to be a thriller, with the region’s best young cricketers including Nick Page, BJ Cameron, Jackson Gwynne, Kieran Dennis and Henry Smith lining up opposite each other.
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The Guyra team are in their last year of junior cricket and have won three successive titles together as they moved through the grades.
They hope to make it four-in-a-row on Saturday but have a tough task with the TAS team in top form.
"TAS are probably the favourite because of their players that are in form,” Guyra coach Andrew Page said.
“This will be their last year together because then they are all too old. It is my honour to be coach of this side because they are all fine, young men moving off into adulthood and grade cricket.
“We are hoping to put a full stop in junior cricket this weekend by beating TAS.”
Guyra’s second grade cricket team are one step closer to a grand final finish after they secured a victory in their first semifinal against Barbarians.
Guyra sent the hosts into bat first with the aim of shutting down the Baa Baas big hitters. BJ Kliendienst was scintillating and kept the home side quiet, taking 4-22 from his 12 overs. In an impressive bowling effort from Guyra, captain Charlie Keen nabbed two while Andrew Page, Simon Brown, BJ Cameron and Tom Smith cleaned up the rest to leave their opposition to defend 163.
"It was a pretty good game, the Barbarians are normally pretty big hitters,” Keen said.
"We bowled pretty tight and fielded pretty well.”
Nick Page and Shane Wolfenden made an immediate impact with the bat, piling on a combined 62 runs in their opening stand.
After their promising start, worrying signs showed for Guyra as wickets fell cheaply.
Up stepped Patrick Keen.
Keen put on 70 runs to steady the ship and help his side to the win.
"We had a bit of a middle-order collapse but Patrick Keen got 70 runs and kept us in the game,” Charlie Keen said.
"He finished the game off with Andrew Page and they got the last 30 runs together giving us the win with three or four overs to go.”
The second grade team face off against Hillgrove this Saturday for a spot in the grand final. The two sides have shared the spoils this season with one win apiece from their regular season matches and Keen is aware of the dangers of getting complacent against Hillgrove.
"They played them a month ago and the Guyra boys beat them, keeping them under 70 runs,” he said.
"Hillgrove are normally well-drilled, they are a pretty good all-round team so they will be pretty keen to try and beat us this weekend especially since we beat them last time.”