The Primary School Maroon team attended the South Island Festival in Ashburton in mid January. They had an unbeaten run until the final game where they had a close loss. The boys did splendidly, as the majority of their opponents were Canterbury teams, which are tough contenders!
Some highlights were: 3-6 for George Wilson in game 1, 36* for Fionn Heagney in game 1, 38* Blake Nation in Game 3, 3-16 for James Crowe in game 4, 66* for Blake Nation in game 4.
The Primary School Yellow team had a slightly more up and down time at the CJCA Festival in Christchurch. They started off with a bang, with a solid win vs CJCA Harris, with captain Lukas Dowling carrying the batting effort. Then had a few close losses and a win vs Mid Canterbury before finishing the festival on a rainy day where Duckworth Lewis came into play. These boys worked super hard to get there and fielded like demons shown by all the runouts and catches!
Highlights: 55* for Lukas Dowling game 1, 37* for Billy Hurren game 2, 2-4 for Lukas Dowling game 1, 33* for Billy Hurren game 4, 32* for George Frampton game 5, 33* for Billy Hurren game 5, 2-9 for Lukas Dowling game 5, 36 for Billy Hurren game 6, 37 for Jaiden Hollis game 6.
This year for the first time ever Marlborough had a Primary Gold side – year 7/8 girls – attend a Christchurch girls festival! This enthusiastic bunch went all out and had a stellar performance for a team that had never travelled to a festival before. Many positive comments have come back from other districts saying they were a pleasure to play against. They had a learning curve at the start with 2 losses, then got into their stride and secured 2 wins before losing the final round robin game. All in all a successful festival experience and we hope to see them out on the field next year again!
Highlights: 2-16 for Pippa Yuen game 2, 26* for Alice Brown game 2, 29* for Pippa Yuen game 3, 31* for Tessa Zillwood game 3, 2-8 for Beau Clouston game 3, 21 for Amelia Campbell game 4, 26 for Zaraya Wilson game 4, 2-7 Sylvia Small game 4, 2-24 for Jemima Nation game 5, 2-16 for Beau Clouston game 5.
The Year 9/10 Boys team had a ripper of a tournament this season. After losing the nearest neighbour game to Nelson the boys came out with a vengeance and blew away their first 2 games at the CD Tournament in Levin. After these 2 stellar performances they lost their steam a little in the last game but still had a trip to remember. All boys put their all in and contributed to team performances.
Highlights: 4-36 for Luke Holdaway game 2, 40 for Ollie Eyles game 2, 117* for Luke Holdaway game 2, 4-40 for Nathan Brooke-Taylor game 3, 80 for Luke Holdaway game 3.
This year we also had four of our year 9 girls head away to Timaru with a Christchurch Metro team. This festival was severely rain affected, with only one day of play taking part, but the team managed to get in 3 games on that day before heading back. Natalie Ellin, Tyler O’Donnell, Pania Dallarosa and Fenella Cooney all play for Blenheim clubs in 4th grade against boys, so it was a great experience being able to play with and against other girls of the same age!
MCA’s Year 11/12 team managed to finally get a tournament in this year! After 2 false starts the previous season they were revved up for the CD tournament in Napier. They had 2 incredibly close losses to start their trip, one nearest neighbour and one loss to Manawatu, beat HKCA, then lost the final game. Good to see some of the boys standing up and working hard to get on top of the opposition, and hope to see more of them coming through the Senior ranks!
Highlights: 65 for Griffin Carter game 1, 3-23 for Tim Petrie game 1, 44 for Luke Pannell game 2, 41 for Griffin Carter game 2, 97* for Tim Petrie game 2, 52 for Tim Petrie game 3, 48 for Carter Aitken game 3, 3-21 for Luke Pannell game 3, 5-54 for Luke Pannell game 4.