Our Marlborough Rep cricketers came agonisingly close to defeating Hawke Cup holders Canterbury Country in Rangiora last weekend as this season’s Zone 3 elimination series got underway. Akhil Pant scored a superb maiden century for Marlborough sharing a 174 run partnership with Tarin Mason (65) for the 7th wicket as they got to within 50 runs of reaching Country’s 317 for 1st innings points. Unfortunately both players were dismissed in quick succession with the team eventually falling just 29 runs short. Earlier Will Smith claimed a maiden 5 wicket bag in the Canterbury Country innings. The Marlborough team will take heart from their strong performance as they take on Buller this weekend at Horton Park with play starting at 10.30am on Saturday and Sunday.

Renwick defeated Wairau Valley to take out the 3rd grade 40 over title in a closely fought contest with Andrew Marshall proving the match winner with 83 while Paul Moran was left stranded on 56 as Valley fell 29 runs short of their target.

In SBS Bank Senior grade T20 there were strong performances from Ben Holdaway (5-15) for MBC in a losing cause and from Wairau Valley’s Sukhjinder Aulakh (4-10) as Renwick and Wairau Valley registered wins to lead the standings after 2 games.

In 2nd grade former Picton youngster Lachie Woolf (55no) was the match-winner for Renwick as they recovered from 28 for 6 to chase down Wairau Valley’s 133 (Tom Leonard 53). Wairau were the other winners as they ended Celtic Green’s unbeaten run thanks to 86 from Tim Petrie and 56 from Cameron Collins.

Top performers in WK 4th grade last weekend included Nathan Brooke-Taylor (24), Albert Nott (32), Luke Petrie (27 & 3-11), Josh Harris (25 & 2-5), Couper Robinson (32), Sam Young (36), Ted Small (3-12), and Lucas Dowling (3-13).

This weekend sees the final rounds of Junior cricket programmes as our WK 4th and 5th grades and Harcourts Kiwi Cricket grades end their 2020 season. Our clubs will be busy re-organising junior teams for the 2021 year as players decide which grades they wish to play next year. A huge thankyou to all our wonderful junior coaches for the time you put into the development of these teams. I am sure you have seen and been rewarded by just how much the players have improved over the year.

A reminder that we have a School holiday programme on mornings of 21st & 22nd December for boys and girls aged 5-12. For more information and to register contact Bailey at development@marlboroughcricket.co.nz