International cricket comes to Shropshire on Sunday when the county’s Over 50s take on their Aussie counterparts at Shifnal CC.
The officially recognised Cricket Australia 50+ XI is currently on a UK wide tour which will feature two games against ECB 50+ representative sides.
Sunday’s game will start at 1pm with entrance free and spectators welcome at Shifnal where the bar will be open all day.
The Shropshire side will be led by former county skipper Bryan Jones (Wroxeter) and features is Simon Aucott (Worfield), Martin Chambers (Shelton), Mike Griffiths (Sentinel), Ed Home, Kevin Humphreys (both Shifnal), Dave Nock (Newport), Tony Parton (Shifnal), Calvin Priest (Worfield), Ian Slater (Willey), Dave Street (Quatt) and Graham Trow (Cound).
Over 50s spokesman Martin Chambers said: “Although the precise make-up of the Australian team isn’t yet known, what we can be sure of is that Australia will represent tough opposition for Shropshire in this unique and highly competitive contest.
“It should be a great day of cricket at Shifnal and it would be wonderful to see lots of people come along and support on the day.”
And three of the Shropshire players, Bryan Jones, Calvin Priest and Dave Street have also been selected to play in one of the representative games which takes place at Barnt Green.
Martin added: “It is an exciting time for Seniors’ cricket. This Australia 50+ tour follows on from the success of previous England and Australia 60+ tours, and there is already talk of a 50+ World Cup in 2018 featuring players from England, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, India, the West Indies and South Africa.”
Umpires on the day will be Mike Sheehy and Duncan Brierley with Sara Mears undertaking the scoring duties as she always does for the Over 50s.
Indeed, the Australian 60+ side were in Shropshire earlier this week when they took on the county veterans in an entertaining game at Oswestry.
The tourists won the toss and opted to bat first in the game where batsmen retired at 50 to make sure everyone got in the game.
They finished on 251-9 from their 45 overs with Sentinel’s Dave Ashlin returning excellent figures of 2-26 from his allocation of nine overs and John Hemmings picking up four wickets in the middle of the innings.
In reply, Shropshire skipper John Foster, who is also captaining the England 60+ side in the ODI Test series against the Aussies, hit an unbeaten 56 and Frankton’s Elwyn Jones retired on 53.
There were also runs for Hemmings (22) and John Gwilliam (22) as Shropshire finished just short of their target on 236-8 to give the Aussies the victory by 15 runs.
Foster and Jones were jointly handed the Man-of-the-Match awards.
A spokesman for the Over 60s said: “Oswestry Cricket Club did Shropshire proud with their excellent organisation and hospitality. Special thanks to umpires Mike Sheehy and Keith Shuttleworth, and scorer Maggie Boyden.”
Shropshire Live is regulated by 