Young guns ready to mark their mark in Toowoomba cricket

With the bat and ball a host of young cricketers are ready to make their mark in Toowoomba and the Darling Downs. Here’s our look at the star players you need to watch this season.

Toowoomba and the Darling Downs has long been a hotbed of young cricket talent.

Plenty of young stars have honed their craft in Toowoomba grade cricket before making their mark on the state and national stage.

Ahead of the 2023/2024 season we have identified the top under-21 cricketers ready to make their mark in the Garden City.

Christo van Vuuren

Van Vuuren is a promising talent currently plying his trade for the Metropolitan-Easts A-grade and reserves sides.

The South African-born youngster has gone from strength to strength and was named in several representative sides while playing in North Queensland, including the Under-18 North Queensland Zone team in 2022.

Van Vuuren is a solid batter who can also contribute with the ball when needed and has scored two centuries in his career, which were in back-to-back innings in the 2017-18 season.

More recently, he scored 255 runs in the 2022/23 campaign at an average of 31.88, including a pivotal half century to help Met-Easts claim victory over Highfields in a Reserve grade clash where runs were hard to come by.

Van Vuuren was also named in this year’s Darling Downs Suns Bulls Masters side which competed in the Queensland Country Challenge in Cairns.

Christo van Vuuren bowls for Metropolitan-Easts against Northern Brothers Diggers. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Fraser Judd

Judd is a scintillating young-gun with a bright future who captained the Toowoomba Under-15 rep side to begin the 2023/24 cricket season.

This season alone, he has posted two centuries in Toowoomba’s Steketee Cup campaign including a monster 153 from 116 balls against South Burnett.

He also scored a quick-fire ton off just 58 balls for the Darling Dingoes in the U15 Brisbane Century Cricket competition.

Despite his age, Judd already has experience playing at senior level and has proven he is more than capable competing against older opposition as he scored 53 in Gladstone last year.

Judd has already compiled more than 3000 career runs and has scored regular half-centuries

throughout his career.

Along with being a weapon with the bat, he can also have an impact with the ball with a bowling average of less than 14.

The Toowoomba Falcons junior rep captain has previous rep experience with Central Queensland, Gladstone, Capricornia and the Queensland Schoolboys’ teams making Judd a player to watch not only this season, but in the years to come as well.

Matthew Nunn bats for Wests. Picture: Nev Madsen.

Matthew Nunn

Nunn is a classy opening batsmen currently playing in Western Districts’ A-grade side.

He scored 87 runs last season in the Warriors’ emphatic eight-wicket win over Souths Magpies and has a career-high score of 111.

His career batting average of 23 makes him a solid contributor on a regular basis and he also boasts rep experience with the Darling Downs and Toowoomba.

Riley Canning

Canning recently turned 16 and is set for a big season with Highfields and Districts Railways Cricket Club.

He has experience playing for the Darling Downs and South West Queensland junior rep side and will likely be making the step up from B-grade to Reserve grade this season.

He is dangerous with the ball and has career-high figures of 8/12.

Regan Liebke

The Northern Brothers Diggers opening pace bowler is set to strike fear into opposition batsmen this year.

Despite his age, Liebke is already a pivotal pace bowler with A-grade experience.

Liebke boasts rep cricket experience and took 4/44 in an Under-18 Run Bushby Shield clash between North and South Queensland.

With more than 150 career wickets at an average of 13.97, Liebke is a threat every time he has the ball in hand.

Raja Ganeshraj

Ganeshraj is set to take Toowoomba by storm this seasonjoining the Southern Districts Magpies after previously playing at a high level in Sydney.

He is a top-order batsmen who is also a challenging spin bowler who asks the opposition plenty of questions.

With a career bowling average of 15.54 and best figures of 6/4, Ganeshraj is a talented bowler who has a bright future ahead.

Ryan Ward bats for Wests. Picture: Nev Madsen.

Ryan Ward

Ward is a damaging bowler for Western Districts who can change a game on his own.

He left his opponents shell-shocked last season when he took 4/10 off 7.4 overs to guide the Warriors to victory against Metropolitan-Easts.

Ward is an economical bowler who can apply persistent pressure from one end which was evident in the Toowoomba two-day final last year, when he conceded a mere 12 runs off his 10 overs.

The young-gun has career-best figures of 5/10 and an impressive bowling average of less than 20.

Gurnoor Singh Randhawa

Southern Districts’ Randhawa is a top-order batter looking to cement his spot in the A-grade team this year after he made his debut at that level last season.

It did not take him long to have an impact at the top level as he scored an unbeaten half century against Northern Brothers in just his third game of A-grade.

He has previously played for the Darling Dingoes in the Brisbane Premier League and is also currently captaining his Lord’s Taverners side.

With the ball he is also a solid contributor and is an effective partnership breaker.

Cooper Webster bowls for University against Metropolitan-Easts. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Cooper Webster

Webster is a talented off-spinner who is also a threat with the bat.

The University off-spinner has played for the Queensland School Team and has played for Ipswich in the Lord’s Taverners competition.

Webster’s bowling average of 18.25 is superb for a spinner and he has career-best figures of 7/68.

Sam Gillespie

University’s Sam Gillespie is expected to hover between A-grade and Reserve grade this season.

At just 17 years of age, Gillespie has a bright future ahead of him and is one of more than 20 players under the age of 20 who are rising through the ranks at University.

Gillespie has rep experience with both Toowoomba and the Darling Downs and is a proven wicket-taker at B-grade level.

Noah Mellis

Mellis will open the batting for University’s B-grade side again this season.

At only 16 years of age, he has already proven himself as a pivotal player in B-grade and a big season is expected from him this year as he will have extra support with University boasting a stronger B-grade line-up.

The left-arm pace bowler is a workhorse in attack with an average of 13.68.

With the bat, Mellis has a solid batting average of 22.9.