The Examiner’s Rob Shaw, Josh Partridge, Brian Allen and Ben Hann unpack and discuss the sports news across Northern Tasmania.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Welcome to episode 28 of the Press Box
00:10 The Examiner's Weekly Sportscast.
00:12 This week we'll be looking at some of the success stories
00:14 in Northern cricket and also looking back on a great night
00:17 for the Jackjumpers at the Silverdome.
00:19 It's a busy week for us guys.
00:21 We've got The Examiner's Junior Sports Awards
00:22 on Wednesday nights and it's quite ironic
00:25 that the guest speaker for that will be Kristen Beams.
00:28 Kristen was one of those Tasmanian cricketers
00:30 that came through before we had teams
00:33 in national competitions, female teams especially.
00:35 So it was before the Women's National Cricket League
00:37 and before the WBBL.
00:39 So Kristen had to make the decision
00:41 of what she was gonna do and she moved to Victoria
00:43 to pursue her cricket and it was very successful
00:45 when she went on to become a very successful
00:47 international with Australia.
00:48 And it's a contrast to the avenues that are now open
00:52 to a lot of young Tasmanian cricketers.
00:55 So we'll be talking about those today,
00:56 beginning with Ava Curtis.
00:58 Brian, tell us about Ava.
01:00 - Yeah, yeah, thanks Rob.
01:01 South Lawn Cessna's Ava Curtis.
01:03 So she's 17 and she's someone that's been well talked about
01:07 for a few years now.
01:09 She's involved with the Greater Northern Raiders.
01:11 She regularly scores well in batting
01:16 and yeah, she made her first century on the weekend.
01:19 So yeah, it's one of those great achievements
01:23 like if you've ever played cricket,
01:25 it's very hard to actually make a big score
01:28 'cause it's a cutthroat sport.
01:31 So you can be out for a duck that often.
01:33 So yeah, it's something to savor and it was great.
01:36 She had her mom and dad and sister there,
01:40 she told me, after the game.
01:41 And then yeah, just as for the innings,
01:45 she made 106 from 62 balls and finished unbeaten
01:49 in the 20 over game that was against Riverside,
01:53 which they won pretty easily.
01:55 But yeah, it was good just to get
01:58 the historical perspective of it all.
02:00 So it's a rare feat in the cricket North women.
02:05 So only the likes of South Lawn Cessna's Belinda Wegman,
02:09 who has done it twice.
02:10 Westbury's Stacey Norton-Smith,
02:12 I believe back when she was with South Lawn Cessna,
02:14 she's done it.
02:16 And there's also been a former Lawn Cessna player,
02:19 Ianthe Bowden, who's got a century.
02:21 So the comp's been going for about 10 years
02:24 and it sounds like there's only been about five centuries.
02:28 So yeah, it's something to celebrate
02:30 and yeah, it was nice being there on the weekend.
02:34 She obviously got a big pause when she came off the ground
02:40 and there were celebrations when she hit the 100.
02:43 So yeah, great thing to witness and well done, Ava.
02:46 - Yeah, and then we had two more
02:48 in the men's competition on Sunday.
02:49 We had this amazing game between Riverside and Launceston
02:53 and centuries in the making, that's a good headline.
02:56 And it was an amazing game, I popped down to it.
03:00 Cooper Anthez scored a century for Riverside,
03:02 but then Alistair Taylor scored an even bigger one
03:04 for Launceston, which got him across the line.
03:06 But it showed the strength of Cricket North
03:08 and you boys were watching the game.
03:09 What did you make of it?
03:10 - Yeah, I suppose, firstly, I'll go with Coop.
03:14 Having followed his career closely,
03:15 he's been there and thereabouts
03:17 and really knocking on that door to make this big score.
03:19 He's had a couple of 60s and a 70
03:21 throughout his couple of years in Riverside's first grade.
03:24 And to finally get through and get that century
03:27 was massive for him, but then obviously
03:29 it was overshadowed by AT.
03:30 And what can we say about AT?
03:32 He's a quality performer.
03:33 He always shows up in the big moments
03:36 and gets his boys across the line.
03:38 And especially now being involved with the Raiders,
03:40 he doesn't get to play for Lonnie that often.
03:41 So just to see how pleased he was
03:44 to be able to literally carry his boys across the line
03:47 alongside Tom Beaumont for a bit there,
03:48 they had a really strong partnership.
03:50 But 119, not out of 125 balls,
03:53 just shows the class better he is.
03:56 - It was nice to talk to Coop afterwards.
03:58 It was his first first grade century.
04:00 And he said exactly what you just said,
04:02 that he was getting annoyed that he kept getting 60s, 70s,
04:05 and he felt that to fully support the side,
04:08 he needed to kick on and get the big score, which he did.
04:10 So he was obviously disappointed to lose again,
04:11 but it's always nice.
04:12 It's one of the perks of our job
04:13 that we get to talk to people
04:15 when they've achieved something so big.
04:16 And he said, "This will stay with me
04:18 "for the rest of my life,
04:18 "and only sport gives you that."
04:20 So it was lovely to talk to him about it.
04:22 - It's been really interesting watching him as well.
04:24 He kind of came into the ranks as a rounder,
04:29 bowling a fair bit of spin,
04:30 and that's where he got his first couple of breakthroughs
04:32 in A grade, getting threes or fours, taking wickets.
04:35 And now the bowling's taken the back seat,
04:37 and he's been able to show the competition
04:39 what class of a batter he is,
04:40 especially with the Raiders as well,
04:42 and with the Tassie Underage Program, things like that.
04:44 - Yeah, and on the same day
04:45 that we had those two centuries in the men's game,
04:48 very close to getting another century
04:50 in the Greater Northern Raiders.
04:51 Tell us about that, Ben.
04:52 - Yeah, not once, but twice.
04:53 It's probably a sign that the wickets
04:54 are just starting to flatten out a little bit,
04:56 that we had three centuries plus two nineties
04:59 from Emerson Manning's Jeeves for the Raiders.
05:02 Some contrasting games of cricket
05:04 down south for the Raiders.
05:05 They belted Clarence by 100 runs on the nose
05:09 in the first game.
05:10 Emerson Manning's Jeeves made 93 off about 61 deliveries,
05:13 I think it was, in the end.
05:14 Unbeaten, battled with Meg Radford,
05:17 putting on 152 runs together.
05:19 The second time Raiders had put on a 150 run stand
05:22 in the women's cricket, which in T20s is a great achievement.
05:25 Darren Simmons, coach Darren Simmons,
05:27 was very, very pleased with how that went along.
05:30 Clarence, though, were really good in the second match,
05:33 led by Hurricanes player Maisie Gibson.
05:35 They put on a really good score, about 164,
05:39 but they almost chased it down the Raiders,
05:41 Emerson Manning's Jeeves once again.
05:42 They found it a little bit harder to find a time
05:44 in the second match, made a 50 off of that runner ball,
05:47 but then just accelerated and came down to the last ball.
05:51 So there was a wide on what would have been the last ball,
05:54 which she got down the other end,
05:56 but I can't remember who it was,
05:58 but a teammate got run out down there,
06:00 it might have been Montana Bradley.
06:02 And then she got to face the actual last ball.
06:06 She was on 96, went for the big six
06:09 and for the wings, they needed six to tie.
06:12 But she was called out, unfortunately.
06:14 But with performances like that,
06:18 she cannot be far away for big honors
06:20 coming up soon, you would think.
06:21 - And I noticed Darren Simmons was quick to make that point,
06:25 pointing out that she's in the Hurricanes squad,
06:29 but not getting a game,
06:30 and I think he was suggesting that she should.
06:32 - I think the quote was,
06:34 "I hope the selectors had a good look at today,"
06:37 as you can imagine.
06:38 - He's a tactful one, I'll say.
06:40 - It's quite funny that you mentioned Maisie.
06:42 Maisie and Emma are roommates.
06:44 - Yeah, they are.
06:45 - So that would have been a fantastic dynamic,
06:47 bowling to the roommate in such a high pressure situation.
06:50 It would be very interesting to see what was going on.
06:52 - Yeah.
06:53 - Fly on the wall on the way home.
06:55 - Absolutely, absolutely.
06:56 But yeah, the second game looked like
06:58 it was a terrific game of cricket.
07:00 So hopefully the Raiders can continue
07:01 this sort of early season form.
07:03 - And I remember Emma when she was a junior,
07:06 she came through about the same stage as my son,
07:08 and she was the only female playing in a boys team,
07:10 and she would routinely score the highest,
07:13 and it used to annoy the boys.
07:15 But they would go out there with all this testosterone
07:17 and get caught within the first couple of overs.
07:19 She just saw off the good balls, scored off the bad,
07:22 and she would end each game with 40 or 50,
07:24 and they would all say, "How come you're still out there?"
07:27 She's just a very mature player, Emma.
07:29 And obviously that's one of many successful stories
07:33 for Northern Cricket.
07:34 We've talked a lot in the past about Aidan O'Connor
07:36 and other players like Jared Freeman and Alex Pycroft
07:39 have made the move down south and been very successful.
07:42 Anyway, moving on to NBL.
07:44 Big weekend for the Jackjumpers in Launceston.
07:46 - It was, it's their first game.
07:47 They've got the second game coming up
07:49 next Thursday, I believe.
07:50 It was a cracking game of basketball
07:53 against Brisbane Bullets.
07:54 They go to the line 87 to 85.
07:56 I'll make a quick note of,
07:57 I think they do a really good job of
07:59 developing the atmosphere within that building.
08:03 It's really loud.
08:04 It's really great family-friendly atmosphere
08:07 the whole time.
08:08 And I was really impressed by how that whole thing was run.
08:13 In terms of the game itself,
08:14 quite comfortably the best game that's been played
08:16 at the Silverdome, I reckon,
08:17 since the Jackjumpers have been around.
08:20 Really high quality contest.
08:22 Jackjumpers pretty much got the job done
08:24 in the third quarter with a 37 point to 24 third quarter.
08:28 Just absolutely raining threes.
08:30 They were hitting left, right, and center.
08:32 And as well as Milton Doyle, to the surprise of no one,
08:35 was leading the way, 24 points,
08:38 including on the stroke of half time,
08:41 hit a three from damn well near the halfway line.
08:46 So yeah, he was unbelievable.
08:48 We've got some quotes coming up from after the game.
08:52 They weren't too happy, Milton Doyle and Scott Roth,
08:54 after the game.
08:55 They conceded 31 free throws
08:58 compared to the Jackjumpers' 11.
09:00 So it's a fact, it's a miracle that they even won,
09:02 considering that's potentially 20 more points
09:04 that they're giving up.
09:06 They weren't very happy with the referee.
09:08 I'll leave it for them to say,
09:09 but this is what Milton and Scott had to say
09:12 about how the game was officiated.
09:14 - I think there's a lot of adversity in the game,
09:16 a lot of ups and downs.
09:17 And for them to go to the line 31 times
09:20 and for us to go 11 times,
09:21 and first team all-NBA, NBL player
09:24 goes four times in the course of the game,
09:26 and we fight adversity and it just got through it.
09:29 Hey, I don't know what it is,
09:30 but I appreciate some free throws.
09:33 I watch all these guys yell and scream
09:35 every time somebody touches them.
09:38 Just 'cause I don't do that,
09:39 don't mean I don't get touched.
09:40 So I don't think it's frustration,
09:41 it's just how it goes here.
09:44 It was the same last year,
09:45 so hopefully things change a little bit.
09:48 - Excellent, thanks for that.
09:50 Read all about all of this and more in The Examiner
09:52 and find us on Facebook or via copy @TheNewsAgents.
09:56 Thanks for tuning in, see you next week.
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