Celtic Green came out on top over clubmates Celtic Gold in Saturday’s SBS Bank 2nd grade 40 over final. Batting first Gold took a typically aggressive approach but lost wickets at regular intervals to be bowled out for only 85 in the 24th over. Player of the match Eli Kepes led the way with 4-34 supported by Luke Holdaway (3-19) and Liam Young (2-14). Gurpreet Singh was left without support unbeaten on 33. Celtic Green needed less than 13 overs to reach their target for the loss of one wicket with Joel Logan on 41no from 50 balls. The 2nd grade T20 competition continues through January with a post Xmas 40 over competition commencing on Saturday 28th Jan.

In the latest round of SBS Bank Senior Grade T20 there was a spectacular performance from Renwick’s Joseph Timms who reached his 50 from just 11 balls in a losing cause against Celtic. Timms was eventually dismissed for 70 from 27 balls as Renwick fell 14 runs short, Ben Holdaway taking 3-27. Ben also contributed 45 in Celtic’s winning score of 162, Jaden Adams top scoring with 46. In the other game MBC made 142 for 4 with good contributions from Griffin Carter (56) and Tim Petrie (49). Tarin Mason then hit 59 from 36 balls supported by Andrew McCaa with 42 from 37 as Wairau comfortably chased the total down for the loss of only 3 wickets with more than 4 overs to spare.

Top performers in the final round pre-Xmas of WK 4th grade games included; Maui de Wildt (24), Rupert Hammond (4-17), Toby Allan (3-15), Torin Birkett (36), Dominic Alexander (49), Spencer Gregg (55), Lukas Dowling (32), Paddy Girling (54), Angus Glover (38), Pania Dallarossa (2-21), Blake Nation (48), William Laugesen (40), James Crowe (33) Daniel Baker (56 & 2-40), & Luca Johnson (2-15). WK Junior grades take a break for the school holiday period, recommencing the first weekend of February.

Best wishes to our various age group representative teams taking part in festivals during January. Our year 11-12 team travels to Levin to take part in the CD tournament from 16-18 Jan. There are two Primary schools boys teams with the Maroon team taking part in the festival at Ashburton while the yellow team plays in Christchurch, both from 9-12 January. For the first time we have a Primary Schools girls team travelling to Christchurch to take part in a South Island festival from 18-20 January. We also have four year 9 Marlborough girls who have joined forces with Christchurch Metro for the festival in Timaru this week. Best wishes to all players involved and to the coaches looking after the teams.

Wishing you all a fantastic Xmas break and look forward to seeing everyone out there on the cricket fields again in the New Year.