TAMWORTH will be looking to begin its War Veterans Cup campaign on a winning note when it clashes with Narrabri at Tamworth No.1 Oval on Sunday.
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However, it will be a vastly different side from the one that took the field last season.
Alongside seasoned campaigners such as Brad Smith and Simon Norvil will be a young pace attack featuring Tait Jordan, Joey Mead and Jack McVey.
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As well as a young seam attack, Tamworth will also have a new captain in the form of Jye Paterson.
"It's a really big honour to have the chance to captain Tamworth," Paterson told the Leader.
"We have some pretty talented players around at the moment, so it's pretty exciting for me to have the chance to lead them.
"Everyone in Sunday's team enjoys representing Tamworth and I think that will hopefully make for a pretty successful season."
Paterson said the injection of youthful players into Sunday's side would prove to be "a big learning curve" for his captaincy.
"I think we are pretty lucky to have so many talented young guys around at the moment," he said.
"For myself, it is a bit of a new-look side and I have to work out the best way to use these young guys so that we can get the best out of them.
"It's been a priority for us this season to blood some young guys and I'm confident they will all hold their own, because they have played representative-level cricket before at some stage."
West Tamworth captain and long-time Tamworth representative Shaun Stevenson said the players were eager to avenge last season's disappointing finish.
"Tamworth has always had a pretty good record in the War Veterans Cup and I think missing out last year might have been a bit of a shock to the system," Stevenson said.
"That's why it's good to see some really talented young guys get on board and hopefully get us off to a good start with a win."
As for their opponents, Paterson said he was expecting Narrabri to come out with "a pretty aggressive game plan".
"We've got to take our chances on Sunday because Narrabri is a good team and will make us pay if we don't," he said.
"They've got some really talented players as well and they can really take the game away from you quickly if you're not careful."
Paterson said his side would be keenly focused on their batting performance on Sunday.
"I think it's really important for us to bat our 50 overs," he said.
"If we can do that, I think we can go a long way towards winning the game and getting off to a good start."