The nets at Horton Park were busy over Xmas with our age group representative teams practicing ahead of their tournaments during early January. Last week Blenheim hosted the Tier 1 Primary School Boys festival at Horton and Oliver Parks, the Marlborough Maroon team performing admirably to finish 3rd from 8 teams taking part from Canterbury and top of the South region. Co-captain Joseph Gilhooly led the way finishing 4th overall in the Festival batting and bowling stats with 89 runs and 6 wickets, including a return of 3 for 9 from 8 overs in an exciting 3rd place win on the final day. Julian Englefield also had a fine tnmt with 82 runs and 6 wickets including remarkable figures of 4 for 1 from 3 overs in the first day win over Chch Red, while Reon Holdaway had the team highest score of 45 in the final day win over Canterbury Country Red.
The Marlborough Yellow team had a tougher time at the tier 3 festival in Ashburton coming away without a win although two were narrow losses including an exciting 1 wicket loss on the final day. Flynn Preece was the leading Marlborough bowler with 7 wickets to finish joint 3rd in the festival charts, while Jacob Hefford led the way with the bat with 84 runs to finish 4th run scorer.
Our Year 11-13 Girls team travelled to Whanganui for their festival with Stella Cornelius leading the bowling effort with 7 wickets and a best of 4 for 12 to finish 3rd in the festival stats. Eva Davey was the leading batter with 47 runs and a best of 22no.
This week our Primary School White boys team play in the Mandeville year 6 festival, while our Year 9/10 boys play in the CD festival in Levin.
Huge congratulations also to Luke Holdaway who has made selection for the Central Districts U17 team to take part in the National tournament in Lincoln from 17-24 January.
The Ultraquip Marlborough Senior Rep Men’s side Hawke Cup campaign came to an end in Rangiora over the weekend with defeat to Canterbury Country. Andrew McCaa top scored with 52 in Marlborough’s first innings score of 182 which Canterbury Country easily passed with 259 all out to ensure 1st innings points. Luke Pannell (3-58 from 15) and Griffin Carter (3-32 from 6) were the pick of the bowlers.
Top performers as SBS Bank 2nd grade T20 competitions resumed last week included Andrew Marshall (43), Lachie Edwards (3-3), Tarin Mason (58), Kyle Heagney (42), Liam Young (3-24), Tom Sutherland (44), Dave Clouston (3-20), William Marshall (30), Craig Howard (3-23), and Wade Cornelius (34no). Senior and 2nd grade 40 over format games resume this Saturday at Horton and Oliver Parks with T20 games on Thursday and Friday evenings for local supporters to enjoy.
