Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s “Top Six”
1. Burnside Coaches win Gillette Cup
Congratulations to Sean Forster and Matthew Hay (both coaching at the club) who were part of the Christchurch Boys High School 1st X1 that won the National Secondary Schools Gillette Cup last week. This is a huge event where approximately 200 schools compete to get to the six team finals. The finals are played in a round-robin format over five days. CBHS went through the week unbeaten to make this the third consecutive Gillette Cup win. A second title for Sean but a first for Matt.
2. Wins to Premiers, Presidents Foxes, Cannons and Mariners
It was all over by about 1.30pm on Saturday as our Premiers dismissed Sydenham for 72 (Blake Coburn 3/11) and won by 5 wickets. It wasn’t plain sailing, however, with BWU 7/4 before a top captain’s innings of 58* from 45 balls by Sam Noster.
Sam Noster – 58* from 45 balls
2A leggie Paul Shackleton took 4/27 against East Shirley and then Edward Wright (53), Mike Allcock (42) and Greg Knowles (48) lead the run chase. It was not enough, however, and the boys went down by 24 runs. The 2Bs also lost to St Albans, despite good batting from debutants Bradley Woodland (41), Brett Taylor (37) and opener Alex McKenzie (33), and then Sahan Petta’s bowling (3/25).
The Presidents Foxes had a three wicket win over Merivale-Papanui. Hamish Kember (64 and 4/21) starred with bat and ball, and Chris Kennedy chipped in with 31.
The 3B Brawlers lost by 93 runs to Marist-Harewood. Chris McCracken (3/47) and Rahul Joshi (3/13) lead the way with the ball, and Callum George and Rahul Joshi both scoring 34. The Cannons had a five wicket win over OBC. Caleb Smith took 3/35, and Will Otte produced a great all-round performance with 3/25 and 68*. The Mariners beat East Shirley by 39 runs.
The Dubai Diamond Traders went very close but lost by 1 run to Heathcote. Blake Stocks took 3/45, and Sam Kennedy (37) and Alex Truesdale (31) were the top scorers.
3. Noster, Wright, Kember and Otte make Honours Board
A small select group on the Honours Board this week. Check out their achievements here.
4. Al Brown leaderboard
The Premiers’ Matt Farrant is the Christmas Al Brown leader. The Foxes’ Hamish Kember has jumped past Rob Gillespie from the Cannons into second, with his team-mate Will Otte and Scott Inglis from the Premiers being the other movers this week . See the leaderboard here.
5. How are we doing? – a mid-season review
How are our teams going? Here’s a summary as we head into the second half of the season:
Premiers
T20 – losing finalists
One dayers – 7th of 10 teams after 6 rounds
Two dayers – 1st of 8 teams after 3 rounds
2As
T20 – competition starts 10 January
One dayers – finished top in round robin. Semi-final against St Albans on 31 January
Two dayers – 3rd of 8 teams after 3 rounds
2Bs
T20 – competition starts 10 January
One dayers – finished 7th of 8 teams in round robin. Play-off for 7th against LPW on 31 January
Two dayers – 8th of 8 after 3 rounds
Presidents Foxes
2nd after 11 rounds
3B grade – 14 teams
Cannons – 1st
Brawlers – 5th
Mariners – 6th equal
(The competition breaks into a top 6/bottom 8 round-robin after two more weeks).
Dubai Diamond Traders
A close 5th of 14 teams
6. Did you know?……..
….. as the excitement about Boxing Day at Hagley Oval builds, that the last Christchurch test match was just over eight years ago, in early December 2006 at Jade Stadium. New Zealand won by five wickets and the match is also remembered for the controversy surrounding Brendon McCullum’s (legitimate) runout of Muttiah Muralitharan when he left his crease to congratulate Kumar Sangakarra on scoring a century. See the footage here.
Sangakarra confused as McCullum celebrates
Have a great Christmas and New Year. We’ll be back on the park on 10 January.
Regards
Burnside Cricket