Matt Burke Engineering Marton Saracens got to turn the screws on the Wingnut Trophy after upsetting an understrength Property Brokers United, who had bigger fish to fry than the minor playoffs of the Coastal Challenge Cup in Victoria Park on Saturday.
With the big trip to New Plymouth's Pukekura Park to play Marist United in the National Zonal Qualifiers yesterday, United rested all their key veterans like Gerard Hobbs, Brendon Walker, Robbie Power, Ritesh Verma and the returning Tom Lance.
Club men such as Martin Pennefather came back up to Premier 1 to play alongside his son James and the other United youngsters, but against the full strength Marton team, who had a horror Cup campaign to finish bottom of the table, they did not put enough runs on the board to prevent a two wicket loss.
Opener Matt Boswell started positively with 42 from 37 balls, but lost key representative batsmen Greg Smith and Chris Sharrock cheaply to allrounder Dan Ford.
When Boswell went in the 16th over, United were 76/5 and never going to recover, with veteran Stephen Holloway's 21 the only other score of note as the team folded for 119, of which 28 runs were extras.
Bryant Galpin picked up wickets throughout the innings for an impressive 4-21 from his seven overs, while Josh Trillo was measly with 2-20 from his 10 and Hamish Harding cleaned up the tail.
Still an out-of-form batting unit, Marton crept slowly towards the total, being 77/4 after 24 overs, with captain Dominic Rayner (33) trying to bat through to the finish after Harding (15) was the only other batsmen to begin crafting an innings.
When Rayner reached too far across and gave away a catch and Scott Oliver was bowled straight after the last drinks break, Marton were 97/7 and soon after 101/8 and looking tense.
However Josh Trillo stayed in and was joined by Chris Rayner and although they rode their luck with a dropped catch and close LBW shout, Chris Rayner released the shackles with a boundary and Trillo drove the ball back past the bowler twice in the 42nd over to bring home a rare one day win.
It also meant Saracens regained the Wingnut - a wooden memorial trophy introduced this season for games between the clubs where the name of the current holder is shown by twisting the second tier.
"The only thing is you can't drink out of it and Wingnut was an avid drinker," said Dominic Rayner.
Across the park on the Tasman Tanning No2 pitch, Bayer Marist likewise picked up a rare victory on the back of some bowling magic by John McIlraith to beat Kapiti Old Boys by 70 runs.
While a couple of Marist batsmen got starts, the team was in trouble at 50/4 until a good partnership between Todd Inness (28) and Johno Steward (43).
However, both fell victim to Connor Beleski, who then took apart the exposed tail to finish with 5-55 from his eight overs.
Defending 151, Marist took wickets throughout with returning Central Districts U17 representative Connor O'Leary getting both the openers, including dangerman Ryan Hickey (24).
At 59/4 entering the 11th over, McIlraith came on and immediately took a hat trick, removing the now set Carter Andrews (20) to a catch, then an LBW on Liam Watkin, while A Murray just played tentatively and missed to be bowled.
Not done, McIlraith then clean bowled Beleski and the No11 in consecutive balls to be sitting on another hat trick for his next game while finishing with 5-5 from his 2.4 overs.
"The first was a full toss and the rest was classic spin bowling," he laughed.
On finals day on February 6, Marist and Marton will now be the unlikely teams to play off for fifth, while after just barely missing out on the semifinals two weeks ago, United will have the indignity of facing Kapiti to avoid the wooden spoon.
Results
United 119 (M Boswell 42, S Holloway 21, B Galpin 4-21) lost to Marton 121-8 (D Rayner 33) by two wickets.
Marist 151 (J Steward 43, T Inness 28, C Beleski 5-55) bt Kapiti 81 (C Andrews 20, J McIlraith 5-5) by 70 runs.