Albany double-team for revamped Great Southern Carnival as they seek perfect preparation for country week

The revamped and rebranded Great Southern Carnival is taking place at Albany’s North Road fields at the weekend, as teams make their final preparations for cricket’s senior men’s country week. The event, which was previously the ACA Carnival and ran for decades until it petered out in the 1990s, used to be held in March but has been revitalised as a hit-out for sides competing in the Perth event from January 18-23. This weekend, Albany will field two sides which will tackle teams from Warren Blackwood, Great Southern, Esperance and Busselton-Margaret River. They will each play two Twenty20 contests on Saturday with a concluding pool game on Sunday morning and a grand final at 12.30pm. Albany and Districts Cricket Association president Ryan Tindale said it was a great opportunity to revive and update a carnival which had been popular for decades. “I believe it was the longest-running carnival in WA and it used to attract teams from all over the area,” he said. “It started as a 50-over competition, moved to super-eights and then died a natural death. “But this is an opportunity to play on turf wickets ahead of country week and should be ideal preparation.” The jamboree vibe will be enhanced by a marquee and food and drink sales in the pavilion. The top Albany side will be captained by Railways skipper Coen Marwick with Royals’ Jack Hastie leading the second team. Lincoln Joy, who has been in action for the WA team in the Australian Country Cricket Championships, is set to open the batting for Marwick’s outfit with Collingwood Park’s young gun all-rounder Buddy Robinson also in the squad. Railways’ brothers Milan and Mohit Jaggi will line-up in opposing teams. Marwick said he was looking forward to getting back into action after the Christmas break. “It was nice to have a bit of a break but it will be good to get going again,” he said. “This should be unbelievable prep for country week. “We don’t usually get the opportunity to play together before the tournament so this should be great.” Albany 1: Devon Jefferis, Lincoln Joy, Seb Stanton, Buddy Robinson, Coen Marwick (capt), Alby Berridge, Milan Jaggi, O’Shea Durack, Oli Douglas, Billy O’Meara, Hayden Davies, Liam Davies. Albany 2: Jack Hastie (capt), Lachlan Otway, Cam Walsh, Matthew Thompson, Angus Thompson, Ryan Kinnear, Dylan Belward, Caleb Haua, Mohit Jaggi, Jed Schwarzbach, Ben Grey, Oli Clark.