Almost before Westbury had time to miss him, Jake Williams is back.
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With new club Glenorchy dealt a third round bye, the gun right-hander will return to play in the Shamrocks' Greater Northern Cup final rematch with Ulverstone.
"When Jake went down there we always said you're always welcome and he's obviously trying to push himself with his cricket," Westbury captain Dan Murfet said.
"His whole family are heavily involved with the club, Kaleb plays with us as well so even though Jake was going to Glenorchy we said we'd always make sure he's welcome and any time he can play for us is a bonus."
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Hamish Sytsma and 16-year-old TCL recruit Alex Jordan also come in with Tom Rogers, Corey Briggs (work) and Jono Chapman (Raiders) out.
"[Alex] is an impressive young man in the way he goes about his life in general but he's a very talented cricketer at the same time and he'll fit in just fin in the first-grade structure," Murfet said.
RIVERSIDE can get its first points of the campaign with a trip to Wynyard.
The Blues suffered a 122-run loss in their season opener against Launceston but had a silver lining in the debut performance of teen prodigy Aidan O'Connor.
"He bowled 10 overs, was our best bowler from the day and was really good with the bat so really positive," captain Tom Garwood said.
"There were a lot of positive signs with the bat, we just found ways to get out, but we'll back our batsmen to make a big score this weekend and get the four points."
The Blues have named Ben Kidd to replace James Simpson, while a question mark remains over club coach and North Launceston development league assistant Lyndon Stubbs.
"He's put a lot of effort into that so he's got to make a decision of making a grand final over a Wynyard bus trip," Garwood said.
MOWBRAY launches its seaon with a trip to Cricket North-West finalist Sheffield.
The Eagles have picked up another bowler in Nick Smith, from Victoria's Jan Juc Cricket Club, but will be without Spencer Hayes.
Coach Jimmy Storay, who will lead the bowling attack with Ben Spinks, said he wouldn't be putting any pressure on his side in the opening round.
"We're still growing on what we were trying to build last year in our first year of myself and [Clinton Reid] taking on the role," he said.
"Again we've got a really young team - [Luke] Burston's 30 and I'm the next oldest at 25 so we're just looking to build a good quality young list that will grow.
"There's no real expectations to go out and do anything special this week, being able to play is probably the main thing with everything that's going on."
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SOUTH LAUNCESTON is unchanged following a thrilling one-wicket win over Westbury last weekend.
Captain Sean Harris is excited to meet a typically strong Burnie side that is largely an unknown quantity for his playing group.
"It's kind of nice to go in not knowing what to expect - with the exception of [Brady Yates and Shaun Redman] we can go in and totally worry about our own performance," Harris said.
"I think against a Westbury or a Mowbray ... you can maybe get a bit caught up in the result and wanting to win or wanting to get bonus points, whereas we go into games particularly against the North-West teams just wanting to get the best performance out of ourselves."
LAUNCESTON will be forced into four changes with skipper Alistair Taylor, Will Bennett, Brayden Stepien (all Raiders) and James Curran (TSL) missing.
Rowan Smith will assume captaincy as the Lions look to continue the bright first round form that saw South African teen Dihan Cloete take career-best figures.
"He did really well, we just told him to try and hit the stumps and he did - all four of his wickets were bowled," Taylor said.
"He's a pretty raw sort of cricketer at the minute so he's still learning a lot about the game, but to take 4-13 off seven or eight overs was a really good effort and hopefully he gets some confidence from that."
FIXTURE LIST
- Launceston v Devonport (NTCA No.1)
- Sheffield v Mowbray (Sheffield)
- Westbury v Ulverstone (Ingamells Oval)
- Wynyard v Riverside (Wynyard)
- South Launceston v Burnie (NTCA No.2)