Big hits a certainty as Baywide Twenty20 gets under way

Cadets batsman Jono Boult is bowled during a Baywide Twenty20 match last season. Photo / File

The Bay of Plenty Cup cricket championship saw some big hitting and heroic performances but even more fireworks can be expected when the Twenty20 competition gets under way.

This year's Baywide T20 championship, which starts this weekend, has a standalone spot in the middle of the cricket season.

A pre-season captains' meeting advocated for a continuous T20 season, rather than playing half the competition in the opening two weeks before completing the title race later in the season.

The first two rounds will be played at Western Bay venues tomorrow, with an immediate return on January 11. A break in tradition will see round five played on Wednesday, January 15, in an early evening time spot.

On the weekend of January 18-19 the last two qualifying rounds and post-section games will be played at Blake Park with the final taking place on the Bay Oval on the Sunday evening.

Carrus Mount Maunganui will have a three-peat of Baywide T20 titles in their sights, after winning the last two championships.

Round one matches them up with arch-rivals Element IMF Cadets before they take on Bayleys Central Indians in the late afternoon round.

Bond & Co Tauranga Boys' College, who won the first two T20 titles in the 2011/12 and 2012/13 seasons, are at home at Nicholson Field for their first two rounds. Geyser City are their first-up opponents before they square off against Eve's Realty Greerton in round two.

Generation Homes Lake Taupō play Greerton and New World Te Puke meet Central Indians, to complete the round one action. Rounding out round two are match-ups between Cadets and Geyser City and Te Puke and Lake Taupō.

- Supplied content

Baywide Twenty20 Draw - Saturday, December 14

Round One: Tauranga Boys' College v Geyser City, Nicholson Field; Greerton v Lake Taupō, Fergusson 2; Te Puke v Central Indians, Fergusson 3; Cadets v Mount Maunganui, Tauranga Domain.

Round Two: Geyser City v Cadets, Fergusson 1; Central Indians v Mount Maunganui, Fergusson 3; Lake Taupō v Te Puke, Fergusson 2; Tauranga Boys' College v Greerton, Nicholson Field.

Baywide Twenty20 2019/20 Schedule

December 14: Rounds one and two.
January 11: Rounds three and four.
January 15: Round five.
January 18: Rounds six and seven
January 19: Semifinals and final at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui.

Twenty20 Champions

2018/19: Mount Maunganui, 2017/18: Mount Maunganui, 2016/17: not played, 2015/16: Otumoetai Cadets, 2014/15: Rotorua Central, 2013/14: Rotorua Central, 2012/13: Tauranga Boys' College, 2011/12: Tauranga Boys' College.