It was the final week of WK 4th grade games last Saturday at Oliver Park. Wairau comfortably chased down Renwick Raptors 126, Josh Abrahams leading the way with an unbeaten 48. Ollie Gaudin top scored with 29 for Renwick while Ryan Batty took 3-7. The Renwick Royals Girls team had an equally comfortable final day win chasing Celtic’s 125 with the Brown sisters to the fore – Alice striking an unbeaten 34 while Isabelle was the chief destroyer with the ball taking 5-10 from 3 overs. The 3rd game was a closer affair with Valley Blazers defending 225 to get the win over Renwick Rams by 24 runs thanks to Joseph Gilhooly’s 4-15. Earlier the Valley innings was rescued by a fine partnership between Jadyn Buckley (65no) and Max Nailer (30) while Archie Laugesen (2-17) was the pick of the Renwick bowlers.
Final round action of the SBS Bank 2nd Grade 40 over competition resulted in two close and exciting games being played out. At Oliver Park Renwick were dismissed for only 111 against Valley Blue with Gagan Singh, Gunn Baath and Yadi Hundal each picking up 2 wickets. Dane Winstanley then produced a match winning spell opening the bowling for Renwick picking up 4-24 from his 8 overs before Cory Golding wrapped up the win with 3-4 as Valley were dismissed for 71. At Horton Park Valley Yellow made a competitive 153 batting first, Matthew Stretch top scoring with 65 supported by Greg Stretch (31) while Luke Petrie (4-39) and Fergus Dodson (3-17) were the pick of the bowlers. Ollie Eyles with 71 looked to be guiding his team home before a late flurry of wickets left it to last pair Colin Wood and Niko Russell to eke out the final 16 runs for victory, James Bell the pick of the Valley bowlers with 3-21.
Valley Yellow play Renwick in this Saturday’s 2nd Grade final on Horton Park no1 while Wairau Valley take on Wairau in the 3rd Grade final on Horton 3, both games starting at 12pm. Senior Prizegiving will follow completion of both finals at Horton Park Pavilion from around 6pm.
On Sunday the UltraQuip Senior Rep Men’s team play their final game for the season with a Newman Shield Challenge against Nelson at Horton Park starting at 11am. The Reps will be aiming to finish their season on a high with a trophy so come on down to support.
The following Friday and Saturday we wrap up the 2024-25 season with two 50 over Over 60s International fixtures with New Zealand taking on Australia at Horton Park. This continues our strong and growing connection with Veterans Cricket and a great opportunity to watch some high quality cricket as another summer of cricket draws to a close.