Three more Marlborough age group teams travelled to compete in tournaments and festivals last week. The Primary Schools Gold Girls team travelled to Masterton where they competed strongly without quite managing a win. Beau Clouston led the way in batting stats with 66 runs and a team best of 25no, Evi Englefield also showing promise to top 50 runs for the week.
The Marlborough Year 9/10 Boys had a strong showing at the CD tournament in Levin with 3 wins and several strong performances. Billy Hurren finished 3rd in tournament wicket takers with 12 and a best of 3-19, Tom Heagney joint 4th on 9 wickets. Josh Harris was 3rd in the run scorers with 234 and a best of 72, Fionn Heagney 6th with 198 runs while Hurren completed a fine week contributing 156 runs including a best of 71no from only 38 balls in the win over Whanganui.
For the first time we had a Year 5/6 Boys Primary Schools team entered in the Canterbury Country Festival in Mandeville and they had an outstanding week losing only one game out of five played. Ollie Gaudin led the way in the batting with 122 runs to finish 2nd among festival scorers. Edward Taylor in 8th place with 73 runs also led the Marlborough wicket takers with 4 alongside Gus Murphy, Mitchell Nicholas and Archie Booker.
In the SBS Bank Senior T20 competition Celtic secured their place in the 7th Feb final with a round to spare following a 15 run win over Renwick, Tom Sloan top scoring with 35, Hunter Ruffell picking up 3-15 on his Celtic debut. Wairau boosted their own final hopes with a 22 run win over Valley thanks to 31 from Tarin Mason. Luke Pannell’s 66 was in vain for Valley.
Town came out on top over Country in a high scoring Senior Grade 50 over game on Saturday with Josh Poole’s unbeaten 95 seeing them to a 7 wicket win. Matthew Stretch (61) and Benji Nation (67) were the main run scorers in Country’s 227, Logan Robinson bagging 3 wickets for 26 runs.
Top performers in 2nd grade T20 games last week included Sukh Aulakh (53), Greg Stretch (53), Paul Hickman (76no), Kyle Heagney (72), Ben Holdaway (3-15), Wayne Young (3-22), Logan Robinson (3-6), Dane Winstanley (4-12), Jamie McLennan (38), Pania Dallarossa (2-17), Tony Alexander (33), Josh Sim (32), Michael Gibb (3-25), Blair Bavin (43), and Matthew Millar (4-22).
3rd grade competition resumes with T20 fixtures this Saturday while 2nd grade 40 over competition games also resume. Junior grades re-start from the following weekend and now is a good time for new players to register if you are keen to give cricket a try for the rest of this summer. Head to our website www.marlboroughcricket.co.nz for information on how to register via the PlayHQ platform or contact liv@marlboroughcricket.co.nz for advice.