Renwick are the winners of the SBS Bank 2nd grade Challenge Cup after beating Wairau Valley in the final last Saturday. Put into bat the Renwick innings was built around opener Hayden Gaudin who batted through the full 40 overs for an unbeaten 67 made from 103 balls. There were useful contributions from Ed Gilhooly (27 from 34), Mark Zillwood (25 from 24) and Tim May (26 from 19) before Cody Golding provided the late impetus with 37 from 15 to take the total through to 227. Stella Cornelius (2-53) and Greg Stretch (2-30) were the main wicket takers for Valley. In reply after the loss of 3 early wickets Sukh Aulakh (33) and James Bell (48) put Valley into contention at 91 for 3 before Renwick spinners Dane Winstanley (2-29) and Ed Gilhooly (4-11) took control as the Valley innings subsided to 123 all out. Renwick completed the 2nd grade 40 over double after also winning the pre-Xmas 40 over competition.
In the 3rd Grade final Wairau were strong favourites having only lost one game all season but the Wairau Valley’s bowlers performed well to restrict them to 163, Spencer Gregg (3-30) and Joseph Gilhooly (3-31) the main wicket takers. Thomas Heagney played a lone hand for Wairau making 79 from 63 balls as they were bowled out with more than 5 overs unused. Billy Hurren (5-35) did his best to turn things around for Wairau but Nathan Glue made 32 from 34 balls before a match winning 60 run unbeaten partnership between captain Lachie Brick (31 from 65) and George Frampton (24 from 27) saw Valley to a 4 wicket win.
On Sunday the Ultraquip Marlborough Senior Rep men’s team missed a great opportunity to bring back the Newman Shield as their season came to a disappointing end. After winning the toss and choosing to bowl first a fine all round fielding effort saw Nelson restricted to 208 all out in the 49th over. Luke Holdaway had the best figures of 3-19 from 8 overs while Archie Cornelius picked up 2-23 from 5 overs. Opener Sam Elstone top scored for Nelson with 74 from 76 balls. The Marlborough reply was built around Andrew McCaa’s 76 from 108 balls opening the innings but wickets tumbled as the required rate rose with only Kirk Nicholas (28 from 29) managing the strike rate required as the innings ended 33 runs short.
While the local Club and Representative season is now at an end the Marlborough public get the chance to watch some high quality Cricket action this Friday and Saturday as New Zealand takes on Australia in two 50 over international games at Over 60s level. These are games one and two in a 3 match series, the 3rd game taking place at the Willows Cricket ground on Monday 24th. Games start at 10.30am both days at the Horton Park no 1 ground.