After the Crookwell Cricket Club's opening match of the season, scheduled to take place against Coolavin last weekend, was cancelled, the team will need to hit the ground running this weekend when they take on Marulan.
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Due to a wide variety of reasons, many of Crookwell's players were simply unavailable last Saturday, captain Jake Patterson said.
"I have three blokes that are in the same shearing team over in western NSW, I have a plumber that's caught up for two weeks, and people down at the coast," Patterson said.
"Even this week, we'll get a team together but we're not going to be full-strength. People are still away and one of our fellas that was right last week isn't right this week because his partner's giving birth."
There is nothing that can be done about these absences as far as Patterson is concerned, except to make sure the team that does take to the field is prepared to play an exceptionally tough Marulan lineup.
The Mad Bulls made their First Grade debut last Saturday, and scored a dominant 108-run win over an MBK United side which was not without its own star power.
Making Crookwell's task even more daunting is the prospect of playing on the newly-finished Marulan turf pitch.
As a cricketer of any level knows, turf wickets all have their own personalities, which gives teams some indication of what to expect on game day.
The newest wicket, however, has hosted just the one Second Grade game last weekend.
That, combined with the strength of Marulan's team, left Patterson expecting a very tough game this Saturday.
"It'll be a bit of a road trip for us down the highway," he said.
"They have recruited pretty well. It should be a good game, a good contest
"We'll definitely have to watch a few of their batsmen, they've got a pretty handy bowling and batting lineup. We're going to have to try and blow off the cobwebs pretty quickly, I think fielding will be the key."
The match between Crookwell and Marulan will take place this Saturday, November 6, from 1pm at the Marulan Cricket Fields.
