Captain Cornish leads the South Australian Outbacks to second place at Country Champs

Former Narrabri District Cricket Association representative first XI vice-captain Coby Cornish skippered the South Australian Outbacks to a second-place finish at the 2024/25 season Australian Country Cricket Championships this month.

The championships were held in the Barossa Valley this year and Cornish and his teammates even got a chance to play a game on the Adelaide Oval.

Round one was contested on Friday, January 3, and the tournament ran through to Friday, January 10.

The Outbacks played their first game of the tournament just a short walk from Cornish’s home at Angaston Oval, where they beat the eventual champions Victoria by 67 runs.

The South Australian men lost their round two match at Adelaide Oval against Queensland and went on to lose their next three games, which were all T20 matches.

They bounced back with a round six T20 win against Queensland and then ended the week on a three-game win streak to claim second spot.

They went into the final day still in the hunt for first place and they did all they could with a four-wicket victory over NSW, however, Victoria got the job done in their round nine clash to be crowned champions.

Cornish said that he enjoyed the week and was proud of his team.

“Finishing second is a really good achievement,” the 25-year-old said.

“It’s not that big of an improvement on recent years because we’ve been going well, but we definitely gave things more of a shake.

“We beat Victoria comfortably on day one and they ended up winning it all, so we were confident that if there was a finals series, we would have gotten up.

“It was a really good week, but it was a different feel being in my hometown. I like when its interstate and its new and fresh, and I get to get out and see new places.”

This tournament was the third in a row that the former Narrabri boy has captained the Outbacks.

Next year’s Country Championships will be held in Western Australia, and Cornish has declared that he is keen to represent the Outbacks there and will work hard to be selected.