Two Bay cricket teams had conflicting fortunes in friendly matches on the weekend.
The top men's team tuned up for the annual Brian Dunning three-day tournament in a fortnight with a tough one-day match with Hawke's Bay at Owen Delaney Park in Taupo.
The visitors posted what looked to be a competitive 221/9 batting first, despite a number of Bay batsmen failing to kick on after good starts.
Tom MacRury continued his run of good form to top score with a neat half-century, while Mitch McCann, Cam Neal and Bharat Popli all reached the thirties.
A good bowling and fielding performance had the Bay team in the hunt for most of the match, but there was always the sense they had fallen 20-30 runs short of a competitive total.