A festival of junior representative cricket is scheduled to be played in Deniliquin from this Sunday.
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The U16 zone carnival will be held at Memorial Park over three days, concluding Tuesday.
Up for grabs is the Colston/Scammell Shield, honouring two legendary coaches in the Riverina - Terry Colston of Cobram and Tony Scammell from Albury.
Both coached Riverina sides at under-16 and under-17 level and both coaches have since passed, Terry in 2006 and Tony in 2021.
The carnival is a selection trial for the Bradman Cup, which is an important part of the Country Cricket NSW High Performance program.
For the third time, the Bradman Cup splits into a North/South carnival for the first three rounds.
The northern carnival will be held at Port Macquarie and the southern carnival will be held in Cootamundra and Harden, both toward the end of November.
At these two mini carnivals, the teams play two T20 matches on the Saturday and a one day match on the Sunday.
All eight competing zones will converge on the Albury border region from January 4 to 7 to complete the carnival.
Having separate carnivals using two formats enables all eight sides to play each other.
The Colston Scammell Shield has been held in the Riverina since the 2004-05 season.
Over this time, the carnival has been held in the Albury border region, Cobram/Barooga, Griffith, Wagga and last season the carnival was held in Hay.
During the COVID-19 seasons, the carnival was held at various locations on a number of Sundays.
This carnival will be 21st edition of the Colston Scammell Shield.
Southern Riverina’s (SRCC) only win in the Colston Scammell Shield was in the 2015-16 season, with a pretty handy captain in Todd Murphy.
From the Mathoura/Echuca areas, he has gone onto represent Australia in the four tests in India in 2023, capturing 7/127 from 47 overs in the opening test at Nagpur.
In last year’s Ashes series in England, Murphy replaced the injured Nathan Lyon playing in a two further tests.
In six tests, he has captured 21 wickets at 25.42.
This carnival is coming to Deniliquin for the first time, which will enable the Deniliquin District Cricket Association and Deni Rhinos to showcase their newly opened clubrooms.
The carnival will be a great boost to the Deniliquin economy with over 50 talented cricketers, parents, plus coaches and umpires enjoying the facilities of the Edward River town.
The draw is as follows:
Sunday – Southern Riverina vs Murrumbidgee, Memorial Park Centre Oval; Cricket Albury Wodonga Country vs Northern Riverina, Memorial Park East.
Monday – Murrumbidgee vs Northern Riverina, Memorial Park East; Cricket Albury Wodonga Country vs Southern Riverina, Memorial Park Centre.
Tuesday – Cricket Albury Wodonga Country vs Murrumbidgee, Memorial Park Centre; Southern Riverina vs Northern Riverina, Memorial Park East.
All matches are 50 overs a side, with play to commence at 11am on Sunday and 10am on Monday and Tuesday.
The umpires for the carnival are David Williams and Dennis Chaplin from Wagga and Graham Moon from Stockinbingal across the three days as well as Anthony McGettigan from Wagga on Sunday and Matt Whitty from Finley on Monday and Tuesday.
Colston Scammell Shield winners (Under 16) are as follows:
2004-05- Northern Riverina
2005-06- Murray
2006-07- Northern Riverina
2007-08- Murray
2008-08- Murrumbidgee
2009-10- Northern Riverina
2010-11- Murray
2011-12- Murrumbidgee
2012-13- Murrumbidgee
2013-14- Southern Riverina
2014-15- Cricket Albury Wodonga Country*
2015-16- Southern Riverina
2016-17- Northern Riverina
2017-18- Cricket Albury Wodonga Country*
2018-19- Murrumbidgee
2019-20- Cricket Albury Wodonga Country*
2020-21- Northern Riverina
2021-22- Northern Riverina
2022-23- Cricket Albury Wodonga Country*
2023-24- Cricket Albury Wodonga Country *
*Denotes formerly Murray
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