Held on the weekend of January 20-22, the Ashes is the biggest cricket tournament of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere with 233 teams.

Mount Isa had three teams with Cavaliers, Napoleons Knights and ladies team F.B.I making the journey across to Charters Towers.

For F.B.I (“you can make up your meaning for F.B.I”) captain Bev Peters 2017 was the 13th year she has been going to the cricket carnival as a player, the first three years were with Townsville based ladies team The Roksoff Sisters and 10 years with F.B.I.

The 2017 carnival once again proved to be a good one for the F.B.I ladies who after finishing second in 2016 went one better in 2017 to claim the winner’s trophy ahead of the other 11 ladies teams.

Peters said the F.B.I team was made up of a mixture of Townsville and Mount Isa Ladies and it was a great team effort by all the girls involved to claim the trophy especially since this weekend is the only time the girls join forces.

The Goldfield Ashes points scoring system is also unique with 3 points awarded for a wins or a draw, 0.01 of a point for every run scored and 0.2 of a point for every wicket taken. Peters said it’s not just about winning each game it’s also about taking all 10 wickets and scoring heaps of runs.

After the first two games F.B.I were sitting in second place behind leading team The Hormoans by 0.5 of a point and Peters admits she did not hold much hope of getting into first place as the team F.B.I beat easily (Never Played One) in the first game had to play The Hormoans in the final game.

The F.B.I ladies went out all guns blazing and after bowling out #Nailedit for 86 runs in 20 overs the ladies piled on the runs to be all out in the 35th and final over for 286 runs.

Thinking they had secured the runners up prize for the second year running the girls went to the presentation in good spirits and could not believe it when named Ladies Champions 2017.

To top off a great weekend F.B.I player Sharon Stockwell from Townsville was named joint Ladies player of the carnival.

Peters paid tribute to Mount Isa’s Kim Smith and Townsville’s Tenille Humphries who were major contributors with bat and ball.

During the acceptance speech Peters thanked the team’s sponsors Jetcrete Oz and Topfire Construction because without their support it would be too expensive for the ladies to participate.

Cavaliers finished in 24th position from 26 teams playing most of the weekend two players short, Napoleons Knights finished in 17th position from 137 teams after winning all three games.