Top guns pad up

The West Pilbara’s top cricketers are gearing up to take on the States best regional teams at this year’s country week.

Two squads will go down to Perth for the week-long competition, with the West Pilbara Cricket Association competing in B and E grades.

Country week will begin this Sunday and run until January 22 at grounds around Perth.

The B-grade squad will be looking to rebound after being relegated out of the A-grade competition last year.

Captain Michael Bunting said the players were excited to face off against the tough competition.

“We’ve punched above our weight for a couple of years now — in A and B is definitely where we sit, so we’re going to be pretty competitive in that grade,” he said.

Bunting said player turnouts for training over the Christmas break had been really positive.

“We’ve got a heap of our first choice players back that have played before in A and B-grade the year we won, so we’re looking at a strong squad,” he said.

Bunting said one of the significant hurdles for the association was getting players down to Perth for the week-long competition.

“The next thing is just the week itself, so we play five games in six days, and it’s 120 overs each day, which is massive compared to the one game a week we normally play here,” he said.

“It’s always a good fun week, we play cricket through the day, and then it’s nice and social in the afternoons when the games end.”

Bunting said it was great for the team to get to experience playing on grass wickets instead of the turf used on multi-use grounds.

“One of the best things about going the chance to play against the best cricketers from the over country towns,” he said.

“The level of competition continues to go up the higher grades you go, and it’s always a great test against a lot of those guys.”

Senior country week starts this Saturday when the WPCA take on Albany at the Iluka Sports Complex.