Queensland City, Country teams named

Sunshine Coast pace bowler Ashley Noffke will turn out in the major pre-season trial match for the XXXX Queensland Bulls after making the decision to return home early from an English playing stint.

Noffke, who is poised to fill the void left by the loss to shoulder surgery of Australian paceman Michael Kasprowicz for the first half of the season, was named today in the Country Origin selection team to tackle City Origin at Warwick's Slade Park on September 8 and 9.

Noffke, who made his Pura Milk Cup and Mercantile Mutual Cup debut last season for Queensland, has been playing for Sefton in the Liverpool competition but informed Bulls coach Bennett King that he would cut short his stint to be available for selection for the match.

The Queensland selectors have selected the sides on an "origin'' basis but have taken steps to ensure the teams will be equally matched.

Jimmy Maher will captain the Country team while the English-born Andrew Symonds, who played his first cricket in Charters Towers and Townsville, will captain City.

The Country team contains country-based players Brian May (Toowoomba), Darren Frakes (Cairns) and Lee Wilson (Tweed), each of whom played for Queensland Country last season.

The players will travel to Warwick by bus on Friday September 8, apart from Symonds, Maher, Seccombe and Kasprowicz who will complete commitments with the Suncorp Metway Country Cricket program in North Queensland before joining the rest of the side on Saturday morning.

In addition to the match, a special gala cricket dinner at the Warwick RSL on Saturday night will be held. Warwick Junior Cricket will also hold their sign-on weekend on both days. Seminars will be held on Friday at Slade Park at 4.30pm for curators, with former Gabba curator Kev Mitchell Senior in charge of that session, and 6pm for umpires and scorers, with first class umpire Jim Torpey speaking on the revamped MCC Laws of Cricket that will apply this season.

Toowoomba umpire Graham Stuart, a teacher at Downlands College, will stand in the match along with Torpey.

The City-Country match, held for the first time last year in Townsville and won by Country, will be the final pre-season trial for the XXXX Queensland Bulls squad as they prepare for the 2000-2001 first class cricket season.

CITY: Andrew Symonds (c), Jerry Cassell, Lee Carseldine, Matthew Goggin, James Hopes, Scott Prestwidge, Dale Turner, Gavin Fitness, Matthew Pascoe, Scott O'Leary, Joe Dawes, Matthew Petrie.

COUNTRY: Jimmy Maher (c), Lachlan Stevens, Martin Love, Brian May, Wade Seccombe, Darren Frakes, Andy Bichel, Brendan Creevey, Ashley Noffke, Lee Wilson, Scott Muller, Matthew Anderson.