Centralian Advocate, Tuesday, December 3, 2013 — 31

SPORT

Cam Gray with Barmy Army ‘‘general’’Dave Peacock Picture: JUSTIN BRIERTY

Wham, bam,thanks CamCRICKET

Mark Hayes

A CENTRALIAN woman was chiefly re-sponsible for helping keep England’scricketing misery rolling.

Carmella Gray, ‘‘Cam’’ to her mates, was‘‘woman of the match’’ on Thursday nightas an indigenous Northern Territory XItook down the might of the Barmy Army ina Twenty20 match at Albrecht Oval.

Cam, a newcomer to cricket in the pastcouple of years who had only ever playedwith the boys in a C Grade Alice Springsmatch, took a wicket and two spectacularcatches to get the gong in a 25-run victoryfor the local team.

‘‘It was a bit nerve-racking at first, but Ithink I did all right - I was stoked. I think Inearly passed out when I got it,’’ Cam said.

‘‘I thought, ‘What the hell have I gottenmyself into?’, when we started because theylooked pretty serious.

‘‘But the guys were great and supportive,especially when I took my wickets.

‘‘I just didn’t want to disappoint theblokes, but I jumped on (NT captain)Marcus (Rosas) when I took one of mycatches.

‘‘It was so exciting to beat them, eventhough they were great people and a lot offun.’’

Asked if she was proud to have played herpart in keeping the entire England touringparty on the back foot, Cam grinned widelyand said: ‘‘Yeah, it was good to keep thePoms quiet.’’

Impressive Blues talentan Imparja Cup product

CRICKET

Jordan McArdle

Josh Lalor

NSW indigenous cricketerJosh Lalor is living proofthat the Imparja Cup is aspringboard to higherhonours.

The talented all-rounderwas one of the stars for theCricket Australia Chair-man’s XI, scoring an im-pressive 45 and putting on avital 64-run seventh wicketpartnership with WesternAustralia’s Ashton Turner(39 not out).

Lalor, a left-arm pacemanand aggressive right-handed batsman, also took

the first wicket of the match- England opener MichaelCarberry for six.

The 26-year-old is one oftwo indigenous cricketerswith a state contract, theother being Victoria’s DanChristian.

He first got the call up forthe Alice Springs-basedtournament as a teenagerand had gone on to play sixfirst-class and four one-daydomestic matches for theBlues, as well as four BigBash League appearancesfor the Sydney Sixers.

‘‘I first came across theImparja Cup after a phonecall from someone at

Cricket NSW seven or eightyears ago when I was about18,’’ Lalor said on hisImparja Cup experiences.

‘‘I’d never heard of thetournament . . . (but) it wasstarting to gain a bit ofmomentum and pick upsome talented playersacross the country.

‘‘Since then I’ve played forNSW twice in the tourna-ment and been back to AliceSprings a few times . . . tospeak to young indigenouscricketers.’’

The Imparja Cup will nextbe played at TIO TraegerPark in Alice Springs onFebruary 9-14 next year.

Bell enjoys respitefrom heat of battleCRICKET

Jordan McArdle

High fives as the the Chairman’s XI players run in to celebrate the fall of an England wicket atTraeger Park on Friday Pictures: JUSTIN BRIERTY

ENGLAND stand-in captainIan Bell believes time in theRed Centre has done his sidethe world of good heading intothe second Ashes Test at theAdelaide Oval starting onThursday.

Bell said it was a good re-grouping experience for thesquad, with a visit to Uluru, around of golf and a warm civicreception welcome from theAlice Springs public part of arelaxing few days.

It was a far cry from thehostile first Test in Brisbane,in which England werethrashed by 381 runs.

As for the heat - whichreached the high 30s on Fridayand Saturday - Bell believes itcould work in the Poms advan-tage for Adelaide.

‘‘I think it’s good for us in away, playing in this heat,’’ hesaid.

‘‘Adelaide’s not going to becold but it will be a lot easierthan playing in the extremeheat (in Alice Springs).

‘‘The guys stuck to it all day(Saturday) and for 10 overs (onFriday) and did really well outof it.

‘‘We’re all looking forward tothe challenge in Adelaide andhave got some good memoriesthere from the last Ashesseries.’’

Batsman Gary Ballance wasthe main English beneficiary ofthe Chairman’s XI clash inAlice Springs with a determinedhalf-century on Friday.

In a bid to claim the recentlyvacated No. 3 position, the Zim-babwe-born 24-year-old top-

scored in England’s mediocretotal of 7-212 declared.

Ballance believes his timelyknock has given him plenty ofconfidence after two ducks anda four in England colours.

‘‘It’s been a long month work-ing hard in the nets, so just to beable to bat for a few hours in themiddle and give myself someconfidence was good,’’ he said.

‘‘I’ve been able to make a 50. Itwould have been nice to push onand get a hundred, but thathappens in cricket.’’

While he would jump at the

chance to play for his adoptedhome against traditional rivalsAustralia, Ballance wasn’t tak-ing anything for granted.

‘‘Obviously it would be a greatfeeling, but I don’t really want tolook too far ahead,’’ he said.

‘‘I want to think one day at atime, keeping working hard andif selected, I think I’ll be ready.’’

England’s other middle-ordercandidates, Yorkshire batsmanJonny Bairstow and Kiwi-bornDurham all-rounder BenStokes, scored 31 not out and 28respectively on day one.

Bairstow has played 12 Testsand averages 30.22 and Stokes,like Ballance, is yet to representEngland in the Test arena.

The Poms lost the match onthe first innings, with the Chair-man’s XI getting past theirscore before declaring at 8-254.

West Australian openingbatsman Marcus Harris top-scored with 49 and England off-spinner Graeme Swann took4-56.

England finished the two-daymatch at 1-47 in their secondinnings.

Redtails boil over at beachBEACH CRICKET

Jordan McArdle

REDTAILS Football Club wascrowned inaugural Centralian Advo-

cate Desert Beach Cricket Carnivalchampions on Sunday.

Temperature of more than 40Cdidn’t stop about 100 people flockingto the Old Telegraph Station towitness a historic event, with the

Redtails edging out the KFC Raidersin a thrilling decider.

Both the Redtails and Raiderswent through the early stages of theSuper 8s style tournament beforemeeting up in the final which wentdown to the last over.

The Redtails Football Clubthanked the Centralian Advocate onFacebook for its hard work in settingup the event.

Caleb Hart captained the winningside, with Paul Campbell, Rob Clarke,Jayden Prior, Grant Butler, JakeClarke, Thomas Ambrose and RoyTilmouth also taking part.

The Outback Warriors, LankanLions, Indian Tuskers and BarmyArmy were the other teams thatcompeted in the six-team tourna-ment. All profits from the event willgo to the Redtails Football Club.

England batsman Ian Bell batting at Traeger Park