Several local young guns recently competed in Adelaide for Glenelg in the Under 18s Shield cricket competition.

The players included Mil Lel’s Tom Smith, West Gambier’s Jayden Prior and South Gambier’s Jared Kuhl.

Also participating in the competition were two former locals Bodey Hosking who played juniors for North and was a part of the Glenelg side with the other local players.

The other former local was Hamish Case competing for his club Tea Tree Gully. Case played much of his early junior cricket at Yahl and West Gambier.

It was a tough competition for the Glenelg side with the team’s coordinator Ben Higgins noting that it was a much younger team than usual.

Overall Higgins considered the tournament to be “pretty disappointing”, pointing to the side’s struggles to bat out an innings as a key area.

“Winning only one game, we struggled probably most facets. We struggled with the bat, we did not bat our 50 overs most games apart from the game we won,” he said.

Higgins said the side’s bowling was “patchy” and fielding was not great, making it a tough tournament for the boys, with the hope that more successful tournaments are to come from the side with experience.

“We had some young guys playing their first tournament, so hopefully they gain a bit of experience for the next year or two,” Higgins said.

“Probably half the team had not played before, so they were still fairly young in that tournament,” Higgins said.

Several highlights from the tournament for Higgins came from promising performances from the local players.

“Jarred Kuhl bowled well in the last game against Norwood. He was getting the ball through quicker with a good rhythm, and he managed to pick up some wickets proving to be a promising player,” Higgins said.

Prior was highlighted for his performance behind the stumps.

“It’s a tough gig in those tournaments, it’s a big workload that he handled pretty well,” Higgins said.

Higgins said Prior’s innings against Woodville stood out as a key point for the side.

“He came out when we were in all sorts of trouble and whacked 40 against some quality fast bowling. That’s encouraging for a guy with a couple more years in the competition,” he said.

Higgins was also pleased with Smith’s performance.

“Being his first exposure he performed well, especially in our win against West Torrens when he opened the bowling into the wind,” he said.

“That was probably his most promising game. He’s fairly raw as he has not played a lot for Glenelg.

“He’s performing well (and) has a lot of upside, especially if he keeps working on his bowling and fielding. He’s a good lad and he’ll be competing in the tournament again along with Kuhl and Prior.”

Higgins hopes the experience of the tournament will result in a far more competitive side for the next tournament.

“We have been pretty strong in this competition until this year, we have got some young bowlers who will learn from the experience and we’ll definitely be stronger next year,” he said.