The four boys – Denver Field, Baxter Sicily, Lachlan Penfold, and Jack Harding – were selected for a Southern Tablelands representative side on the back of a trial process which took place in Goulburn across July and September.  

Since the new zoning changes came into effect earlier this year, which meant that Yass became part of the ACT Southern District, along with Goulburn, Crookwell, and the South Coast. 

Six Yass children attended the trials, and the four who were selected, according to Yass Junior Cricket Coordinator Andrew Harding, “couldn’t be more excited.”

The boys are as yet too young to have decided on a solitary discipline, and Harding described them as doing a bit of both. 

“You could classify all of them as allrounders, really,” Harding said. “They all have a bat and all have a bowl.” 

Jack has been opening the batting for the Southern Tablelands, while Denver and Baxter bowl pace and legspin respectively and are both capable batsmen, while Lachlan was busy with his batting and his bowling on the first day. 

The Kookaburra Cup is an Under 12’s competition which is designed to give junior cricketers experience and expose them to a broad range of talent. 

Having run from Wednesday to Friday, the competition is composed of three matches a day for the first two days, with one on the last. 

It is a heavy workload for the youngsters, but necessary, as Harding estimated that there would be “about 20 teams all up” present at the event. 

“They’re a good standard of players from all over the place, it’s a reasonable standard of cricket. 

“[It’s a] fantastic experience, at that age, to get the opportunity to play against kids from all those different places and they get a chance to bat three times and bowl three spells in a day …  not something you get very often.

“Just an opportunity to play a lot of cricket in a short space of time, at a good standard.”