Team Grand wins beach cricket

EXPERIENCE paid off for “the locals” on the weekend at the Grand Hotel’s Australia Day Beach Cricket event.

In its fourth year, Team Grand finally kept the goods on home turf after coming home empty handed the past three years.

Pairing off against Home Loans Etc Daredevils in the final, the home team was stoked to claim the win.

Winning team captain Roy Thomson said ‘training’ and hydration was the key to success.

“We kept hydrated on the beer and came good,” he said.

Team Grand got off to a shaky start early, but finished strongly after the beer kicked in.

“We’ve been ‘training’ at the Grand every afternoon for the last three months,” he said.

Thomson said off-season ‘training’ would be held weekly and would begin next week.

“They played in every one for the past four years and finally won one,” venue manager Rod Bradbury said.

The annual competition proved it was still a popular way to celebrate an early Australia Day after close to 3000 people passed through the gates.

Bradbury said the competition was “good fun, but competitive”.