Cricket: Central North prepare to face formidable foe in Country Championships opener

Groth's side will be underdogs against Newcastle with the Novocastrians something of a perennial stumbling block, and chasing a third straight title.

"Newcastle are very strong, very hard to beat," Groth acknowledged.

"But we've got nothing to lose."

"We just need to turn up and play our best."

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The championships are being held later in the season than usual but it has still been a challenge to pull together a side with players either not putting their hand up or unavailable. COVID hasn't helped, throwing a few last-minute spanners in the works.

It is a bit of a different looking side with a couple of players that are returning to the Central North fold and a few new faces.

One of the latter is former Easts (Armidale) captain Todd Francis. Playing in Maitland these days, he was the Maitland and District Cricket Association player of the year for 2020-21.

With his power-hitting and left-arm orthodox, Groth said he will "be a good inclusion", adding that it was good to see him step up and test himself at that next level.

City United young gun Callum Henry is also stepping up and will reunite with former City team-mate Tom Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald has moved down to Newcastle, where he has been amongst the runs for the University of Newcastle.

He was Central North's topscorer in the game against Newcastle last year, scoring a well-made 76, and Groth will be looking for big things from him this weekend as one of the senior batsmen with this now his third campaign with Central North.

Simon Norvill will be another with a big role to play with the bat and has been in pretty good form.

"I played against Norvs the other day and he's hitting the ball as well as he does," Groth said.

"He's played a lot of these carnivals now and you know what you're going to get.

"He can really get you off to a good start, hopefully he can do that again over the weekend."

The Old Boys opener has been getting in plenty of cricket this season, traveling down to Newcastle of a Sunday to play a few weekends.

Coach Tom O'Neill and Bryan Warren will spearhead what is a fairly well-rounded attack with a couple of left-armers in Francis and Pat Magann offering something different.

They have though lost Dylan Smith, which is a bit of a blow.

Groth spoke about starting the carnival well, which is something they have struggled to do, and managing the rigors of back-to-back cricket.

"It's a long carnival and you've just got to try and play as well as you can for as long as you can," he said.

"There's going to be ups and downs over the weekend, it's a matter of coming out of those okay."

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