The Australian Test side may not have much hope in the forthcoming Ashes series against England, but Batemans Bay teenager Matt Condon looks set to cause the Poms plenty of grief on the field.
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After a simply outstanding past 12 months, Condon was selected in the NSW combined high schools (CHS) side that will embark on a 10-match cricket tour of the United Kingdom from July 1.
The CHS team will take on Scotland’s under 19s, and several English county under 19s teams before finishing up with three matches in London.
They’ll also squeeze in a tour of the famed Lord’s Cricket Ground just days before the second Ashes Test.
“I was pretty stoked because it’s not often you get a chance to tour England,” Condon said of his selection.
“So I was pretty happy with that.”
The 17-year-old Bay High student caught the eye of CHS selectors after he led his school team to the final of the South Coast tournament.
From there, he was named in the South Coast schools side, and played a “leading role” in the South Coast’s first ever state high schools championship title win.
Condon was named player of the championship after the final, thanks in large part to several outstanding batting performances – 216 runs at an average of 54.
“I was pretty stoked with that,” he said.
“I knew I’d scored plenty of runs but I didn’t think I’d get it because other blokes took more wickets. But I suppose it just went my way.”
The opening batsman followed that up by representing CHS at the state schoolboys championships, where he gained selection in the NSW All Schools side.
In addition to his school representative honours, Condon also played a major part in the ACT first grade competition, which his Western Districts-University of Canberra side won.
He finished the ACT season as the leading first grade run scorer with a total of 628 runs at an average of 41.87 – that included an innings of 94 in the grand final.
His efforts have been considered all the more remarkable, considering he only just recently turned 17.
Condon was consequently rewarded with selection in the ACT under-19 team and the training squad for the ACT Comets.
As if that wasn’t enough, he was also named ACT Cricket’s rising star at the recent awards night.
One so young could be blamed for getting distracted by all that recognition, however, he is now purely focused on the forthcoming tour, which will be his first trip overseas.
“The furthest I’ve been before is Hobart,” Condon said.
Meanwhile, Condon was this week named as the recipient of the inaugural Elders Real Estate Scholarship.
