Hello everyone, and welcome to the first “Top Six” of 2015.
1. Into the second half of the season
Welcome to the 2015 half of this season. Some highlights from here are:
- Our Premiers resuming as two-day competition leaders on 7 February. There are four rounds remaining;
- Our hosting of the Presidents grade day on 24 January, with all teams based on or near Burnside Oval;
- The morning grade one-day competition finals also being at Burnside Oval on Sunday 7 February. Can our 2As win their semi-final on 31 January, to make finals day?;
- Saturday morning Junior Cricket resuming on 7 February, followed by Friday evening Junior Cricket on 13 February;
- Junior Prizegiving at 4pm on 22 March, and Senior Prizegiving at 7pm on 28 March (the last day of Saturday cricket for the season)
- Two Sundays of adult cricket (15 and 22 February), so we can all join in the excitement of the Cricket World Cup!
Junior Cricket – resumes on 7 and 13 February
2. Senior Morning Grades – 2As on top of T20 competition
Our Premiers suffered a heavy one day loss to East Christchurch Shirley, so let’s leave that there and focus instead on our 2As who are joint equal with St Albans after the first day of their T20 competition. The whole grade was hosted at Burnside Oval, and it saw two wins for our lads over Riccarton and Marist-Harewood, by 40 runs and 60 runs respectively. Guy Borren and Matt Janett starred with the bat (see below) and leggie Paul Shackleton kept up his good form with 3/19 and 3/17 over the two matches. Another whole 2A round is at Burnside Oval tomorrow. The 2Bs also had a complete T20 round, at Hospital Corner, with a 6 run loss to St Albans, before also going down to Sydenham
3. Senior Afternoon Grades – Cannons into clear lead in 3B grade
The Presidents Foxes had a rare loss, to East Shirley Blue by 46 runs. Jeff Roy (2/43 and 28) led the way, supported by Gareth Gibson (2/34) and Rhys Barron (32). In the 3B grade, the Brawlers (Rahul Joshi 22, and 8/4/11/1) and Mariners suffered losses. However, the Cannons have now got a two win leaderboard buffer, after their 74 run win over their nearest challenger Sumner. Will Otte scored 44, Doug Harding 31, and Rob Gillespie took 3/24. In the Cavaliers T20 grade, the Dubai Diamond Traders lost to Heathcote by 28 runs.
4. Two 2A batsmen onto Honours Board
Only the two names onto the Club Honours Board this week, both for their batting efforts for the 2As. See the details here.
5. Close battle at top of Al Brown leaderboard
It’s developing into an intriguing battle at the top of the Al Brown leaderboard. After another good bowling effort, the Cannons’ Rob Gillespie has re-taken the lead from the Premiers’ Matt Farrant. Rahul Joshi from the Brawlers moves into third and Will Otte from the Cannons climbs to fifth. Keep an eye out for a fit-again Scott Inglis (Premiers) who is slowly climbing the ratings (now into 9th) with several weeks to go……. see our website to find out who is where.
6. Did you know……
….about Roger Blunt from our club?
Have a look at our Honours Board and you’ll see Roger Blunt mentioned several times, with long stints for both Canterbury and New Zealand, and as a prolific batsman for the club in the 1920’s.
Roger Blunt
85 years ago this week, Roger Blunt played in New Zealand’s first official Test, in Christchurch. He top-scored with 45 not out in New Zealand’s first innings against England, in a match lost by 8 wickets.
Three interesting facts about Roger Blunt:
- He hit 42 off an eight-ball over, with seven sixes, for West Christchurch against Riccarton in 1923;
- He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year before New Zealand had played a Test, after an impressive 1927 tour of England;
- In 1931-32 he slammed a run-a-minute 338 not out for Otago against Canterbury; he is one of only seven New Zealand first-class triple-centurions (Bert Sutcliffe, Glenn Turner, Ken Rutherford, Mark Richardson, Brendon McCullum and Peter Fulton are the others);
- He played 97 innings for our club, scoring 5178 runs at an average of 56.9. He hit 16 centuries, with a highest of 266. He also took 207 wickets at 20.4 with his legspinners.
Have a great cricketing weekend.
Regards
Burnside Cricket