An excellent week for our Club with the top 3 grades all registering Outright wins in 2-day action over the weekend – none more deserved than our Div 1 (3rd’s) guys who had an action packed couple of Sundays…
But 1st up in Junior space the BWU 6 team have had a couple of exciting weeks! Last week’s action saw an outstanding performance by Jacob Robertson – grabbing 4/7 off just 3 overs (including a hatrick) as they rolled OBC. He also snared a run out and notched up 22 runs as they cruised home…
Things remained dominant for this young team this week as they wrapped up another W – Matthew Graham starring, in his hardball debut, with 5/30 including 3 wickets in 4 balls – Dylan Roan swallowing all 3 catches at mid off!
Other Junior cricket was a “how much rain is at your park” type gig as a number of games were called off on the spot under patchy drizzle across the city. I personally visited the venues of 6 scheduled games in our “patch”, along with Junior Convenor Shane Young, only finding the Year 4’s at Bishopdale Park willing to brave the conditions…
PRESIDENTS FOXES:
The Skipper lost the toss and fielded against Lancaster Park at home on Burnside 4 this week. The 1st 30 overs went pretty well with Gibbo taking a couple of early ones, to dismiss their danger men, and Kember & Robertson keeping it tight as they were 90/3 ish at the 30 over mark.
Former LP Premiers bully John Quinn (55) switched things up a gear however and skipper Richard Derham struck a hard hit 37, complimented by a patient 40 no from LP legend Brian Butler, as they ended 173/5 and probably 30 more then they should have got.
Skipper Robertson spoke strategy with passion (fearing we were brittle batting wise) and M Shack and Josh Allan added 42 for the 1st wicket at 4’s. But with 2 quick wickets seeing them both dismissed that same Captain had to step up – and did – with a fluent 71, before running himself out in comical fashion when we needed just 4 for the win.
But he’d earlier added 53 with Roy (17) and 34 with Turner (15) to get the job mostly done before Kember mopped things up with 20 no.
Both Roy & Kember were presented 100 match caps for the Presidents by Club (and President’s) legend Robbie Chisholm as the Foxes maintained 1st equal spot in the grade.
DIV 3 – WHANGAPAROA PONY CLUB CANNONS:
Still without El Capitan Peters (have you seen him??) it was batsmen 6, 7 & 8 who did the bizzo for our Cannons – Dilla Smith (with 45), Footie Foote (59*) & Kasun (46) – as the lads posted a handy 222/6 against Easts Kings Punjab XI at Burwood.
It wasn’t to be however as the King’s XI snuck home 7 down with just 3 balls to spare – despite Footie’s 3/48 & Knowlesy’s 2/38.
DIV 4 – BOOMERS
Over on Burnside 2 the Boomers restricted Sumner Blues to just 89 all out inside 39 overs to appear to have the upper hand at the change of innings – Deon Cremer continuing his excellent bowling form with 4/12 off 8 overs while Mike Reed backed that up with 3/8.
Deon also top-scored in reply – but unfortunately that was with just 8 – as the Boomers capitulated to be all out for 35 in the 24th over. The Groundsman will appear before the Executive Committee later today as an explanation is urgently sought…!
DIV 5 – STRIKERS:
At Nunweek Park our men decimated the visiting Heathcote Red Wolves – rolling them for 73 at the 30 over mark. Chief destroyer was Arun Bhardwaj (who no longer has the wicketkeeper symbol by his name – suggesting at least one person reads these write ups) with 4/13, while both Sharma & skipper Pandya claimed 2.
In reply the home side cruised to victory just 4 down in the 24th – opener Rahul Joshi top-scoring with 23.
T20 ROUND UP:
No result in from the GhettoHustlers as yet – possibly skipper Reid’s week spent on a bus inspecting yearlings around Invercargill was a factor. The Believers likewise are yet to get their result in.
The Holstein’s Boys have all left the city to return to university elsewhere – but have been replaced by a local group of students led by Alex McKay. It’s been a few years since some of them played cricket and they needed a detailed briefing on rules, gear & playing conditions before the travelled to Centennial Park to take on the Heathcote Hustlers on Saturday.
Alex reports a loss (their 119/4 from the 20 easily run down by Heathcote’s 122/2 inside 16 overs) but that much fun was had.
The Dubai Diamond Traders faired better against their own Heathcote opposition in the Cavaliers at Barnett Park. The big names of DDT’s cricket, in Luke Moore & Brooke Skates, each claimed 2 cheap wickets as they restricted the opposition to 108/6.
In reply Greg Knowles (40 retired) and Oscar McCauley (19) did most of the damage in their opening stand – leaving enough ham on the bone for Ranui Luke to get 20. The Skates & Moore show completed matters inside 13 overs with 8* & 16* respectively. These lads are on a bit of a roll lately…
PREMIERS:
As previously mentioned a successful 2-Day round for our top 3 teams this week – Premiers doing the job on Burnside 1 with an outright victory over an OBC side featuring Canterbury paceman Ed Nuttall.
OBC resumed still around 100 behind on the 1st dig and – despite Jeff Case moving through to 80 – a flurry of wickets, which saw both Matt Hay & Sam Carlaw threatening hatricks, reduced them to 190/9 & a resulting declaration 55 behind.
Ed Nuttall backed up his reputation with 5/38 to pressure the home side – who at one stage were 22/4. Luckily Canterbury opener Steve Murdoch was also in a mood to flex some cricketing muscle – his 68 off 77 balls supported by Matt Hay’s 36 as Burnside set OBC 188 for the win.
Cometh the hour cometh the Man – and Jackson Latham did the “big angry fast bowler” thing to claim 5/38 and cut the heart out of the OBC top order. Steve Murdoch snared 3 catches at slip and the “spin twins” of Hay & Carlaw took the remaining 5 wickets between them as OBC were rolled for 116 with some overs still left available.
Cut & paste the following link into your browser to see the last wicket to fall.
https://d1bfkfz0itn259.cloudfront.net/cb645c51f-c773-44b8-b746-18c4ce7b4755.480p.mp4
The Premiers sit atop the table in the 2-Day competition as a result – just ahead of St Albans and Lancaster Park who drew with each other in the weekend.
CHAMPIONSHIP:
Resuming at 230/7 against Lancaster Park at Garrick Park – 2nd’s skipper Alex McDuff chose to push on briefly to add another 30 runs and establish an 87-run 1st innings lead over the home side.
That same skipper (and Club Captain) himself scored 28 to round off last week’s heroics from Tait (103) and Angus (46). Not content with that he claimed a wicket in each of his 1st 3 overs to immediately put Park on the back foot – before he decided to (briefly) let Alex Tait in on the fun as Park were quickly reduced to 34/7.
The dual Alex’s returned useful figures – McDuff 4/24 & Tait 3/19 – before Hugo Howard chipped in with 2/14. The very strong Park side humbled to 77 all out and a victory by an innings and 10 runs sees our lads also top the 2-Day Championship table.
DIVISION 1:
And last, but very much far from least, our Div 1 Men continued their contest with the Sydenham 3rd’s over on Burnside 3.
Faced with a momentum shift, courtesy of some late hitting last week from the Sydenham top-order, Jason and the lads toiled for some 57 overs in the field as the opposition overturned a 1st innings deficit via posting 230/7 declared.
Wickets shared but Burny Martin (3/32 – including a stunning caught & bowled) and Jason himself (2/47) the best. This left our lads requiring a slightly daunting 189 for the outright and – a stiff challenge.
Opener Clark & No: 3 McKenzie each scored 18 to get the ball rolling but the loss of others cheaply saw the Burnside men reduced to 50/5 and really up against it…
Enter Henk Huyser – who posted 58 no, finding support in Tim Scott (40) at No: 7 & Burny Martin (29) at No: 8. Their partnerships with Henk of 72 & 40 respectively turned the game back Burnside’s way. Henk struck 9 fours and 1 six in a crucial match-winning innings to get the boys home at 192/7 inside 36 overs.
A fantastic win for this side who – despite the regular challenges this grade throws at them – are really playing for each other, and for the club, with genuine passion. Great stuff Jason & the lads…!
Yours in Cricket…
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