By Tara Murray
Caroline Springs is hoping with improvement this season it will again be in the mix in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association’s Charles Clark Shield division 4 competition.
The Falcons finished second last season, falling to Moonee Valley in the first week of the finals.
Having kept the same squad together, senior player Kane Sevior said they were happy with where things were at to begin the season.
“Things have kind of crept up on us,” he said.
“We’ve picked up a few players in the lower grades. Some more experienced heads to help with the juniors.
“Our one’s and two’s are pretty similar.”
Sevior said one of the keys for this season would be the performances of their two imports.
One of those, Gayashan Weerasekara averaged 71.1 with the bat last season and won the Ray Scriven Medal as the division’s best player.
Sevior said if they could have the same performances from them and the others continue to develop, they would be in for a good season.
He said the work they had done building up the side and bringing young players through the past few years was starting to shine through.
“We’re still fairly young,” he said.
“Chris [Vulic] and Jerome [Arandez] are our opening bowlers from last season and are still young, while Lucas [Blackman] is our first or second change bowler, he is just 15.”
Sevior said the area they hope the biggest improvement would come from is at the top of the batting order. Opening batsman Jackson Mills is one player they expect to step up.
The Falcons will have a delayed start to the season when they take on Wyndhamvale in a one-dayer this weekend.
They were due to get underway at the weekend, but all matches in their grade were cancelled because not enough pitches were ready.
Only matches in three senior grades went ahead.
Overall, Sevior said things were going well at the club.
He said they had 17 junior sides this season, with a number of juniors pushing through into the senior team.
They will also field a women’s side for the first time. The side is playing in the Cricket Victoria Women’s Community Cricket Competition.
The club already has junior girls sides, so the women’s side will provide them with a pathway.
In other VTCA results, Melton Centrals defeated Melton South Royals in the Melton derby in the Russell Pollock Shield division 5.
Centrals made 141 after winning the toss, before bowling the Royals out of 129.
