The Ultraquip Marlborough Men’s Hawke Cup campaign suffered a blow at the weekend with an outright defeat to Nelson at Horton Park. Having taken the 1st innings points and a lead of 98 into the second innings Nelson bowled Marlborough out for 224 leaving 20 overs to chase 127 for the outright win which they did for the loss of 6 wickets. For Marlborough Corey Bovey (58) and Joel Lavender (70) resisted well in the 2nd innings while Lachie Munro top scored with 54 in the first innings. They now face a tough trip to play Canterbury Country in the New Year needing at least 1st innings points to keep their final hopes alive.
Renwick were declared winners of Saturday’s SBS Bank 2nd grade 40 over final by virtue of being the higher placed qualifier following a dramatic tied match against Celtic Green. Cody Golding (44) and Dane Winstanley (35no) enabled Renwick to recover from the loss of their top order batters to post a respectable 202 batting first (Liam Young 3-46). Andy Fitzpatrick led the Celtic reply with an unbeaten 63 with support from Liam Young (43) and Logan Robinson (39) before falling one run short, Dane Winstanley bowling 8 tight overs for only 15 runs to complete a match winning double.
In Senior Grade T20 games there were wins for Wairau and Renwick with stand out performances from Sukh Aulakh (56no), Sam Boyce (45), Tarin Mason (33), Andrew Nation (43), Fergus Dodson (3-18), Liam Young (40) and Mike Anstis (3-10).
Top performers in the latest round of 2nd Grade T20 games included; Shiv Yadav (40), Caleb Young (3-10), Ben Holdaway (43), Patrick Moran (46), Alex Neal (4-19), Luke O’Hagan (40), Tyrone Pike (33), Michael Gibb (3-24), Josh McLennan (59), Ed Gilhooly (42no), Tony Alexander (81no), Wade Cornelius (46), Tony Andrews (45) and Adam Balasoglou (41).
In the first rounds of 3rd grade T20 games standout performances included Nathan Glue (64 & 3-24), Fionn Heagney (70), John Diamanti (3-27), Billy Hurren (50), Spencer Gregg (32), Michael Canning (3-4), and Kurtis Pincott (43no & 3-12),
Leading performers in the latest round of WK 4th grade games included Jadyn Buckley (32), Charlie Clark (2-14), Reon Holdaway (31), Jacob Hefford (3-16), Julian Englefield (3-1), Ned Bell (53 & 3-24), Archie Laugesen (3-15), George Laugesen (36), Finnbar Duncan (38), Noah Hagan (3-23) and Mason Ball (3-22).
Junior Grades now take a break for the Xmas and New Year holiday period with competitions resuming first week of February. We also look forward to hosting the Primary School Tier 1 festival from 5th to 8th January at Horton and Oliver Parks. Many thanks to all junior grade team coaches and the parents that support these players and make it such a great experience. We look forward to seeing you all out there again in the New Year!