Forbes will get another two chances at winning cricket’s Grinsted Cup this summer but there will be no other inter-town matches played, with the demise of the Lachlan Cricket Council competition for 2015.
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Lachlan Cricket Council’s Ross Williams, who also administers the Grinsted Cup, said only three towns - Parkes, Cowra and Forbes - had been able to field teams for the LCC competition, which had been due to begin early in the new year.
Young Cricket Association decided to join Cowra’s Saturday competition and Condobolin had been unable to muster a team, Williams said.
However he said six local cricket associations had expressed interest in challenging Parkes for the Grinsted Cup, a competition founded in Forbes in 1919.
Williams announced the draw for the remainder of the summer yesterday, with Molong set to open the new year’s games on January 11.
Forbes has the next challenge, and will play either Parkes or Molong on January 18.
West Wyalong are due to contest the 95-year-old challenge on February 1, with subsequent matches for Cowra (February 22), Young (March 1) and Grenfell (March 8).
As is customary for the cup, Forbes has the right to make the last challenge for the summer on Sunday, March 15.
Williams said Parkes were comfortable winners in all three challenges so far this summer, against Forbes, Cowra and Grenfell.
Molong and West Wyalong also had planned a cup challenge but both towns forfeited.
Ross Williams said only Cowra had been competitive against Parkes in the three games played in 2014, but West Wyalong may also be an outside chance if they can muster a team for round two.
“Cowra gave [Parkes] the best run so far, but I’d say the main two sides [to challenge Parkes] will be Cowra and West Wyalong, if they can bring their best side,” he said.
EJ Grinsted presented the now highly regarded cricket challenge trophy in 1919, and Williams said it had endured since, apart from a break during the WWII years.
Any cricket association within a 120km radius of Forbes can mount a challenge.
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Meanwhile, Forbes and District Cricket Association will host its first ever twilight game tomorrow night with Post Office Hotel to meet Golf and Sportsman’s Hotel Tigers at Botanical Gardens.
The game will be played under lights at the College Road grounds, in the Twenty 20 format.
This round’s other game (also T20) will be played on Saturday afternoon between VC Reid and Forbes Inn / High School.
Forbes Inn / Masterstroke Painters have the bye for the final round of 2014.
Men’s cricket will break for two weeks and resume on Saturday, January 10.
