Geraldton thrown late curveball as captain Ringo McKenna withdraws from men’s cricket country week side

Geraldton’s hopes of keeping the prestigious A-section title at the CSBP Men’s Country Week Cricket Championships have taken a hit, with a major out set to shake up the squad. Captain Ringo McKenna, who led Geraldton to the title last year, has been injured. He has withdrawn from the six-day event to be played in Perth from next Sunday. The loss of McKenna has thrown planning into disorder as he is not only a fine leader, he is Geraldton’s pace spearhead with 72 country week wickets at 15.06. He is also an attacking batter and quality fielder, and has played 45 country week games. Also unavailable from last year’s team are Zane Marwick, who won the Barry Shepherd Medal as the event’s best player, all-rounder Jay O’Brien, wicketkeeper-batter Jeremy Bedford, and young pacer Seth Farmer. Geraldton Regional Cricket Board officials met on Monday night to pick a replacement for McKenna and name a new captain. Country week this year features 40 regional teams contesting sections A to E. Geraldton has won A-section five times — in 1933, 2001, 2005, 2018 and 2025. Geraldton teams have won B-section three times (1973, 1992 and 1999), and Mullewa won in 1933 and Northampton-Chapman Valley in 1959. Geraldton has three C-section titles (1964, 1969 and 2006) with success in 1957 for Northampton-Upper Chapman. D-section has been won by Geraldton three times (1978, 1993 and 2020).