Welcome to another week’s addition of Tah Talk with Jay Lenton. This week Jay takes us through Katie Letcher stepping up to captain W1s, some great performances from some debutants, and the girls getting their season underway this weekend.
Thanks again to Underground Cricket for partnering with this article each and every week. Great to have Damon, Jason and the team on-board. For all your cricket equipment needs visit them at www.undergroundcricket.com
CAPTAIN KATIE WILL SLAY THEM
Like a lot of kids from the bush, Katie Letcher lets actions rather than words speak for her.
Typically understated, Katie arrived from Yeovil a couple of seasons ago to fill the all-important keeping role while providing an extra set of eyes and ears for our captains.
She had previous captaincy experience in country cricket and is a great tactician of the game.
And while she is not one for wordy pre-game rev ups or lengthy post-mortems, she has a knack of getting the best out of those playing under her.
Those qualities will be priceless when Katie, in the absence of some of our senior players, takes over the captaincy of our women’s first grade side this Sunday. We take on the powerful St George-Sutherand Slayers on a triple-header day of T20 matches.
Asked about her captaincy philosophy, Katie responded: “To make sure each player is confident in what they have to offer and giving them the opportunity to stand up.”
Sounds pretty good to me.
The club is very much looking forward to having her step up into the role in the absence of our regular skippers.
Katie will no doubt lead from the front through her actions and rally the troops as we begin an exciting 2024/25 season.
NEW BOYS AN INSTANT HIT
There are plenty of new faces at Manly this year as we continue to infuse the best of our local talent with some quality imports.
And two of our newbies – Axel Lacey and Henry Rogers – have hit the ground running, scoring lower grade tons last weekend.
At just 16 years of age, Axel is a talented left-hand batsman who has arrived in Sydney with his family after they made the decision to move up here for work.
He has made an immediate impact with his hard work and enthusiasm and looked the good as he reached triple figures against Blacktown.
Henry, who also raised the bat against the Warriors, is an 18-year-old from Sussex who has come over with Bertie Foreman as part of a development program run by his county club.
Henry made his first class debut last season and has represented England at under-19s level.
He is a talented batting all-rounder who will be available for our Poidevin-Gray team on top of his grade commitments.
Welcome to the Tahs, lads.
It’s great to have you onboard.
GIRLS GET UNDERWAY
We are very proud of our women’s program at Manly and will be looking to build on last year’s success when the new season gets underway on the weekend.
After a solid pre-season campaign, W3s kick things off with a one-dayer against Sydney at Balgowlah Oval on Saturday.
The following day, the Brewer Shield side, W2s and W1s will line-up in a T20 triple header against St George-Sutherland at Harold Fraser Reserve.
The Slayers are always strong, especially in the top grades, and play pretty tough cricket but we are well prepared.
Rip in, girls!
