Maitland District Cricket Association has redrawn the first and second grade fixtures after anomalies were discovered which would have led to teams playing each other three times and others just once.
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The draw anomaly was discovered earlier this month and this week’s round five fixtures were the first opportunity for the alteration to be made as round four’s two day fixtures had begun.
Changes to the remainder of the draw were to be finalised this week and posted on the MyCricket website.
Mark Warland, who oversaw the changes with assistance from Mick Ackerman, said it was a mission to make it work, but they had finally got the job done.
“There maybe some rounds that are close together in the return matches but that’s had to happen to make it work, otherwise it would’ve had a flow on affect through other grades,” Warland said.
In the first grade the revision sees a reverse of round two’s fixtures this week with Eastern Suburbs hosting Northern Sububrs, Port Stephens at home to City United, Thornton and Raymond Terrace playing at Thornton No.1 and Kurri Weston taking on Western Suburbs at Kurri Central.
It will be an early benchmark for teams to assess their progress and to address deficiencies identified in what was effectively the first round of the season after round one was washed out.
After four rounds, City United and Kurri Weston are the only teams to remain unbeaten with City leading the comp on 24 points with an outright win against Port Stephens to start the season.
Easts are without a win and have suffered outright losses to Norths and Wests.
After a strong start, Norths batting has been disappointing and they have had big losses to Raymond Terrace and City United.
Norths all-rounder Lincoln Mills said Norths batting would need to click on Saturday or they faced the possibility of a rare three losses in a row.
“Our bowling has been good, we just have not been able to put it together with the bat,” he said.
“Easts are a very young side but they have a very bright future if they can keep the team together as their youngsters are very talented.
“They are probably one or two experienced players short of being competitive regularly at the moment but give it a couple of years and they will be a power again.”
City United have had a strong start to the season as expected, but this could be a danger game with Port Stephens at home and playing the familiar one-day format they dominated in over the past decade in A-grade.
The Pythons had struggled to pass 160, but hit form with the bat making 7/208 in their second inning against Thornton last weekend and coming within one-wicket of a second-innings victory.
Kurri Weston will be favourites at home against Western Suburbs.
Round five
First grade:
Easts v Norths at East Maitland Park
Port Stephens v City at King Park 5
Thornton v Raymond Terrace at Thornton No1
Kurri Weston v Wests at Kurri Central
Second Grade:
Norths v Easts at Lorn Park
City v Tenambit-Morpeth at Robins Oval
Raymond Terrace v Thornton at Jack Collins Oval
Wests v Kurri Weston at Coronation Oval