NSW claim Blind and Low Vision 2019 Championship

The NSW Blind and Low Vision squad have once again been named champions in 2019! They finished the pool matches with the first seed and a 0.64 percentage differential with their only loss of the tournament coming against the team they played in the final, South Australia. After dispatching Queensland in the semi-final, winning by 102 runs, they advanced to the final in what promised to be an amazing contest. The match featured the tournaments two best players, Captains Lindsey Heaven and Stephen Palmer, who were crucial in pushing their respective teams over the line. The squad knew that the key to a NSW win would be containing Palmer, who had amassed 516 total runs over 5 matches prior to the final.

The match started rocky for our New South Welshmen, with superstar batting pairing Lindsey Heaven and Oscar Stubbs (who combined in the QLD match for an unbeaten 0/235) broken up on the second ball of the day as Oscar was run out for a rare diamond duck. Lindsey however steadied the ship, putting on a clinical 78 from 49, before Shaun Fitzpatrick, who had an outstanding tournament, added 48 from 35. Our squad finished the 20 overs at 5/217, setting up a grandstand final innings. As mentioned before, limiting Stephen Palmer with the bat would be key for NSW victory, and limit Palmer they did. Averaging over 100 runs per match, Palmer was dismissed by Shaun Fitzpatrick for only 9 runs. From there they never looked back, taking a stranglehold on the match and finishing 26 runs winners.

Full match report

Photos from tournament

7 February 2019