Tamworth cricket: Former Australian under-19s rep Ben Taylor suiting up for Bective East

The Canberra native moved up to work on a farm just outside Manilla last year. Originally only meant to be for three months he loved it so much he "decided to stick around".

"I enjoy it up here so don't really have any reason to go back now," he said.

It's good news for Bective-East with the allrounder giving a glimpse of his talents when the Tamworth competition resumed after the Christmas break last weekend.

READ ALSO:

In his first game for the Bulls, the 23-year old claimed 2-8 before hitting a match-winning unbeaten 23.

"It was good to get the cobwebs out and contribute to a win," Taylor said.

"I was a little bit rusty early on but I managed to get a couple out of the middle at the back end there and get the boys home."

It was his first hit really since the end of last season with work commitments tying him up the first part of the season.

"Before Christmas we were harvesting so I was sort of working every Saturday and pretty flat out during the week so I decided I'd put it off until after Christmas," he said.

"Now I can get to training and can play every weekend, which is good."

Opener, keeper, and Manilla local Abel Carney was the one that facilitated the coup, what is a pretty big one for the Bulls.

It's not everyday you score a former Australian under-19s player.

In 2015, Taylor was part of the squad that toured England, playing alongside the likes of Jhye Richardson, Will Pucovski, Matt Renshaw and Jake Doran.

At the time Cricket Australia National Talent Manager Greg Chappell was quoted as saying he saw similarities between Taylor and New Zealand great Daniel Vettori.

He also played a bit of state Second XI cricket for the ACT Comets and has for the last four seasons been plying his trade with Bankstown in the Sydney first grade competition.

For a couple of those he actually lived in Sydney, moving up there to pursue cricket.

But the higher representative opportunities he was hoping for didn't materialise, and he got to the point where other things started to occupy more of his focus.

"I was sort of at a point where I was enjoying what I was doing for work (before coming up here he was working on a farm outside of Canberra), and I thought that was probably past me," Taylor said.

He continued: "I was at a point where I sort of wasn't prepared to devote that much time into it".

Now playing purely for the fun, he said is "content with not going to that next level".

The Bulls will be looking to build on their winning start to the new year against South Tamworth on Saturday, in what will now be a 40-over game at Riverside 1.

Elsewhere Old Boys play City United at No.1 Oval and West Tamworth and North Tamworth do battle at Riverside 2.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: