THE future of local cricket is in good hands, with Casterton’s Billy Rhook joining Hamilton District Cricket Association Hurricanes teammates for a big week at the annual Portland Under-13 Country Week carnival.

With the HDCA always sending at least two teams to this carnival, the results of each side were very good across the three-day event.

At this age group the players must play two, 25 overs per side matches per day.

The carnival is a true test of the players skills and temperament as they contend with the best players in the age group from across the Western Waves region.

Day 1

HURRICANES Green was matched against Mt Gambier in the first game of the day and the side came away with a victory, 7-106 to 8-89, thanks to Tom Templeton (19) and Jay Casey (18 retired-not-out) scoring well while Hugh Prentice (2-8) took the honours with the ball.

The team then went on to defeat Horsham in the afternoon match, 63-45, with the ball dominating the bat throughout the game.

Casey returned the incredible figures of 4-4 and Ned Hintum posting 16 with the bat to have the Green side undefeated after day one.

HURRICANES Gold ran into a strong Warrnambool Gold team in the opening round as the Hurricanes fell short 9-64 to 7-121, as Oscar Templeton retired-not-out with 2, but no other player could offer support to the opener, while with the ball, Spurs Lynch (2-18), Xavier Dwyer (2-6) and Archie Templeton (2-1) all bowled well.

The afternoon match saw the Hurricanes regather their form and come away with a great victory against South West Gold after having to hunt down a target score of 6-124.

The players rallied to reply with 7-127, thanks to Jack Dwyer (19-retired-not-out), Alex Bird (14), Matt Hill (15), Luke Hilsdon (13-not-out) and Archie Templeton (10) all reaching double figures.

Day 2

THE morning game pitted the two undefeated teams in the competition against each other, as Hurricanes Green battled hard against Warrnambool Blue, failing to get over the line, 8-87 to 8-100.

Ned Hintum (13 retired-not-out) and Chad Logan (13) recorded double figures in the run chase and Hintum doing well with ball too in taking 2-6.

Hurricanes Gold was drawn against Horsham for the first game of the day, and they must have entered the match confident they could take the points after HDCA Green won against Horsham the previous afternoon.

Jack Dwyer (20) continued his great form at the carnival by top scoring with Billy Rhook (13 retired-not-out) also batting well, while Alex Bird (3-17) took the honours with the ball as Gold went down, 9-90 to 5-127.

ROUND four saw Hurricanes Gold play Portland and the side had its match of the carnival with Sineth Hansa top scoring with 23-not-out, while Spurs Lynch retired-not-out with 20 next to his name in the scorebook to guide Gold to 5-118.

The bowlers backed the batsmen up with a fantastic start in grabbing three wickets with only one run on the board, as Billy Rhook (2-11) and Luke Hilsdon (2-4) took the bowling honours as Portland was kept to 9-63.

HURRICANES Green was looking to carry its outstanding day one form into the second day, but the team came up against South West Gold in the afternoon match and the opposition posted 4-151 with Chad Logan being the best of the bowling attack with 1-4.

Tom Templeton played his best innings of the carnival in posting 31, and Hugh Prentice made 13 but they were the only batsmen to reach double figures as the final tally stood at 96 when the last wicket fell.

Day 3

DESPITE having the same number of points as the top four, neither Hurricanes team played semi finals due to inferior percentage rates, but that didn’t stop either team recording a third victory apiece for the carnival.

Hurricanes Green were matched against South West Green which won the toss and batted first, but they ran into a well-oiled bowling attack that wasn’t prepared to hand over cheap runs.

Jay Casey (2-2) and Chad Logan (3-2) continued to make the ball sing, but the star was Xander McIntosh (3-6) who grabbed a hat trick to wrap up the innings with only 60 on the board.

The run chase didn’t go to plan though as the Hurricanes fell to be 3-1, but Tom Templeton (25 retired-not-out) and Jobe Dunn put together a 50-run fourth wicket partnership that saw the Green’s reach the target safely.

Chad Logan topped off his game with a knock of 11-not-out to round out the performance.

HURRICANES Gold was also celebrating a final round victory with Xavier Dwyer (4-6) starring in his second over of the innings, taking three wickets in five balls to destroy the Wimmera Mallee middle order, as the Hurricanes routed the opposition for 61.

The team put their best display with bat together for the week as Oscar Templeton (32 retired-not-out), Billy Rhook (30 retired-not-out) and Archie Templeton (21 retired-not-out) dominated, as the Hurricanes posted 7-153 in reply.