Tom O’Neill warmed up for his Central North opens debut this weekend with two strong performances with the ball.
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Backing up from his 1-19 from 14 for South Tamworth on Saturday, O’Neill was arguably the pick of the bowlers for Tamworth on Sunday as they booked a spot in the Country Cup fourth round.
Taking the new ball he claimed 4-33 and snared a couple of crucial breakthroughs including the prized scalp of Linden Lockhart.
He’ll be one of a couple of new faces in the Central North line-up for this weekend’s Northern Country Championships in Narrabri.
“It’ll be good,” he said.
“I’ve been working fairly hard trying to get myself fit.”
He did a lot of running in the off-season.
He participated in the City to Surf and Tamworth 10, and a few of other fun runs.
“That and a couple of months ago I started cross-fit,” he said.
He’s also been doing park-runs most Saturday mornings.
It has, he felt, helped his game.
One of the biggest attributes of his game is his longevity and ability to bowl long spells, and not give a lot of runs away.
On Saturday he bowled six maidens in his 14 overs and five in a row at one stage, as he and Angus McNeill had Wests in all sorts in their run chase.
The two have formed a formidable opening partnership over the season and a bit O’Neill has been with Souths.
He said he is pretty happy with how the ball is coming out, and looking forward to what will be three days of tough cricket.
It won’t be his first time donning Central North colours.
“I did U21s a lot of years ago,” he recalled.
He’ll be one of four frontline pacemen, along with Brendon Reynolds, Lincoln Mills and Jack McVey, and will just be keeping things pretty simple.
“Just try and bowl nice and tight lines and hopefully do a good job for Tommy Groth,” he said.
The championships get underway on Friday with Central North facing Central Coast at Collins Park.
Newcastle take on North Coast in the other game at Hogan Oval.
