Two Mossman State High School Year 11 students David Coulthard and Kaiden Sorensen have just returned from Bundaberg where they represented the Peninsula team in the 19yrs & under Cricket State Championships.

Mossman SHS HPE Teacher and Coach of the Peninsula team Ben Vikionkorpi stating that the team played fantastic cricket over the 3 day championship producing the best results from a Peninsula team in his 7 years of coaching the U19 Peninsula team.   

Matches were 110 overs per day and the first day was the toughest match played against South Coast seeing Peninsula lose the game by only 1 run on the last ball of the day with a final score of 7/223 to 6/224. 

The second day against Sunshine Coast saw a win for Peninsula making 10/250 and SunCoast 11/125. Third day results against Northern were also won by Peninsula 10/330 and Northern 7/250.

Two boys from the Peninsula team, namely David Coulthard from Mossman and Rhys Camilleri from Tully were selected for the Qld team. Rhys batted outstandingly achieving 72 not out, 55 and 45 respectively over the 3 days.

Taking a new approach to his batting, David Coulthard scored a fantastic 58 runs on the third day of the match and took a total of 6 wickets over the competition.  5 of these wickets were taken in one match against Sun Coast boasting figures of 5-35.

Under bowled, Kaiden Sorensen also had some outstanding economic bowling taking 5 wickets for the competition with his best result at 3/7 off 8 against Sun Coast.  His total figures were 5/43 off 21 overs for the total 3 days; a true testament to the tight line and length that he consistently bowled.

Both MSHS students took the most wickets for the Peninsula team along with spin bowler Jakeb Valente from Innisfail who regularly chimed in keeping the wickets falling.

The Peninsula team finished 4th from 10 teams (equal third on points) in the Championships winning two matches and losing the third by only 1 run. More consistency in fielding and taking wickets when needed would have had them finish higher up the ladder.

With such close results Ben Vikionkorpi is looking forward to coaching the team again next year where Peninsula will be aiming for a 1st finals ranking which hasn't occurred in the history of the competition in this age group.  Potentially having 8 players from this years’ team returning next year, and the pool of talent available to pick from next year, this 1^st placing is well within Peninsula’s grasp.