The future is looking bright for Central North girls cricket with the inaugural under-13 Country Championships unearthing some exciting young talent.
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None more so than Caoimhe Bray.
Only 10, the Denman allrounder played beyond her years.
"She performed very well," co-coach Peter Graham said.
She was Central North's best performer with the bat over the two days scoring an unbeaten 30 (retired) against Western, 28 against North Coastal and a second-top unbeaten 17 in their final game against Illawarra.
Gravesend's Molly Armstrong top-scored with 21, the pair combining for an unbroken 46-run partnership to guide the side to their first win of the carnival.
Armstrong also top-scored with 30 against North Coast and duly shared the side's best and fairest award with Bray.
Despite only picking up the one win, Graham and Joe Cameron were really happy with how their inexperienced side performed, the carnival a "massive" learning experience for the girls.
For most of them it was their first time playing carnival cricket at that level. Only really captain Sophie Parsons had before.
They had a tough start, drawing eventual winners and Sydney champions North Shore first-up.
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Batting first, Parsons anchored Central North's innings with an unbeaten 30 as they posted 6-71. The Sydneysiders in reply chased down the runs inside 13 overs.
From there though they had some pretty tight tussles. They went down in the final over to Western and fell just one run short chasing against North Coastal, and improved every game.
"We asked them to do certain things and they followed through," Graham said.
One of the most pleasing things was that they had girls perform better than they did at the trials.
Inverell's Annalisa Collins was one of those and was awarded the encouragement award.
"She bowled very well in the games and didn't bat too badly either," he said.
Graham also made special mention of Naomi Krake, who filled in as 12th man both days.
He said the girls took a lot away from the carnival.
One of their biggest learnings was being consistent with their bowling, with extras really hurting them in two of their games..
He said it also showed them the amount of work they've got to do in the field, and the preparation that is required to play carnival cricket, especially in hot conditions like they experienced at Raymond Terrace.
"It drains them so much," he said.
They learnt the work they need to do to play through that tiredness and still perform at the level they need to.
The championships doubled as a selection trial for the squad to play at the State Challenge in Wellington in late January. Graham is hopeful a couple of girls will get in that.
