Last week Springlands School took on holders Witherlea for the Primary Schools Challenge Cup. In an entertaining game it was Springlands who came out as winners on the day in front of a good crowd of parents and supporters. The competition is for year 6 and below and we encourage schools to consider a challenge during term 1.

The Marlborough Rep side scored an emphatic outright win over Buller last weekend to get their Hawke Cup campaign right back on track. Will Smith had another 5 wicket bag including a hat-trick which ripped the heart out of Buller’s 1st innings of 112 (Sam Boyce 4-17). Marlborough gained a lead of 100 before bowling Buller out again for 169 (Nick Weaver 3-23) and cruising to a 9 wicket win. Andrew McCaa (42 & 40no) and Ben Ivory McCullum (24 & 32no) contributed well to both innings. Marlborough’s round 3 game on 23rd and 24th January at Horton Park against Nelson becomes effectively a knock out final to decide who challenges Canterbury Country the following weekend.

Best wishes to our U17 rep team that is taking part this week in the Central District U17 tournament in Napier and also to Madalyn Winstanley and Neha Jat who are part of the Tasman girls U15 side in the CD girls festival at Palmerston North.

In the final round of WK 4th grade games for 2020 Lachlan MacNeil (64 & 4-18) and Louis Girling (47 from only 17 balls & 4-13) were in fine form as Wairau Valley made 256 (Liam McIntyre recording exceptional figures of 4-19). Celtic replied with 206 (Luke Holdaway 50). Strong performances from other games included Josh Harris (57), Gus Wickham (43), Tom Vercoe (40) and Joe O’Regan (34).

Wairau Valley take on Renwick in the 3rd grade T20 final this Friday after both won their round 6 games last week. Our two Marlborough Labour Hire TPL teams travel to Nelson on Saturday for crucial round 3 games.

Performance of the week in Senior grade T20 came from Celtic’s Josh Poole who made 122no from 72 balls as they beat MBC by 22 runs (Ben Holdaway 42). Renwick suffered its first loss by 10 runs at the hands of Wairau (Tarin Mason 65 & 3-17).

In 2nd grade T20 Simran Marok (4-9) was the match winner for Celtic Gold over Renwick while Tim Petrie (52no) helped Wairau to beat Celtic Green. In the 40 over competition Richard Moran hit two sixes in the final over to help Valley beat Celtic Green while Renwick strengthened its position at the top of the standing with a narrow win over Celtic Gold (Ben Weaver 31 & 4-13).

We have had a great response for our School holiday programme on mornings of 21st & 22nd December for boys and girls aged 5-12 but you can still register this week by contacting Bailey at development@marlboroughcricket.co.nz