Beaudesert cricket stalwart Andrew Steindl will represent Queensland after being selected for the inaugural Queensland Veterans Over 40s National Championships side.
The batting all-rounder will play for Queensland at the national competition from 26 November to 1 December in Newcastle.
Steindl, who will turn 50 on 15 November, has been playing cricket locally since he started as a junior in the L&A Under 14s at the age of 7 or 8.
These days, he plays the open grade for Beaudesert Cricket Club in the Logan District Cricket Association competition, is a Senior Coordinator for the Beaudesert club and President of the Selwyn Park Sporting Management Committee.
He also plays in Division 1 for the Loganholme Cricket Club in the Gold Coast Cricket Over 40s competition. His performance with Loganholme qualified him to represent Queensland.
“Last year I played a full season with them and did pretty well with the stats, so I got selected for this Queensland team,” he said.
When he heads to Newcastle, it will be Steindl’s first time playing cricket nationally.
“The only representative cricket I’ve played is Under 19s, I got to South Queensland in the Queensland Country Trials, but I didn’t make it into the Queensland Country team,” he said.
“This is the first year Veterans are doing Over 40s, they’ve been doing Over 50s and above for a while, but the over 40s is new,” he said.
“Because I turn 50 on 15 November, so it might be a bit easier to go with the Over 50s, but it is an achievement to be able to still make it with the Over 40s while I can.”
In reflecting on his lifelong passion for cricket, Steindl said it was a good outlet.
“It’s just a good getaway from life, really, and it gets that competitive spirit out of your system,” he said.
“I’ve always enjoyed sports and I think locally there have been others who’ve done similar with the Veterans, like Steve Larrescy from here and Paul Lorenti from Jimboomba. When I started playing senior cricket here, they were the mature players at the time.”
