Cricket North: Westbury's a Battle ground

Shamrocks coach Matt Battle has made a fine return after a year off, hitting a half-century in his side's opener and snaring 2-9 off seven in his first overs of the season last weekend.

Preparing for a bulked-up Latrobe, Westbury captain Dan Murfet said Battle's form was no surprise.

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"He's one of our best players and has been for 10 years or so," Murfet said.

"He's come back with the bat just as good as he left really. It's a little bit of putting all of our best bats up the top which can be a bit dangerous, but it's worked out well so far so we'll stick with it."

Oli Wood is expected to return to Raiders with Jake Williams coming back the other way, while Corey Briggs (foot) will be assessed.

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Batting the full 50 overs is key for LAUNCESTON as it becomes Sheffield's first opponent of the season.

The Lions took a bonus point win against Wynyard last weekend after making 155 on a tricky wicket as Matthew Woods proved the hero with 3-12 off seven and a well-made 20.

Coach Alistair Taylor said the veteran would keep his spot for Saturday's away trip.

"We just wanted a bit more control from our bowlers and Woodsy's done that his whole career so we brought him in and he played his role to perfection," Taylor said.

"He played a fair bit of twos last year and it was good to get him some reward and back into the ones."

MOWBRAY will have to wait until November 10 for its round four match, with Devonport Council yet to approve the Orions' home ground for play.

Eagles captain-coach James Storay said the extra break would give his side more time to build after failing to make three figures in each of its first two outings.

"It gives us a good chance to continue to train the areas we need to work on which at this stage is hitting lots of balls," Storay said.

'We understand that we're in a bit of a rebuild phase and we've got some really exciting talent that hasn't been exposed to much A-grade cricket, so you expect when you start blooding these guys and they play their first, second, third and fourth games there is going to be some hiccups along the way."

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RIVERSIDE is set to make two changes with Ben Simpson and Cooper Anthes unavailable for the home clash with Burnie.

Skipper Tom Garwood has put the onus on his top five to play a big innings and make the most of the Riverside deck after Latrobe chased 192 last round.

"No-one went on to bat deep into our 40^th to 50^th over so we were very lucky that Stubbsy [Lyndon Stubbs] played a good innings down the order," Garwood said.

Sam Artis has been the pick of the Blues' bowlers this season with two wickets in each of his three games.

"He's very young and he's been training all through pre-season with Cricket Tas and all the squads so he's starting to put all that in play," Garwood said.

Graham Donaldson will replace Nathan Carter as SOUTH LAUNCESTON travels to Wynyard.

"We only had the three seamers last week which worked but it'll be nice to have an extra seamer this week," captain Tom Waller said.

The Knights sit level with table-topping Launceston on 11 points after three rounds.

Saturday, 10.30am