Bay of Plenty Coastland (Western BOP) will defend the Alan Whimp Cup when they compete at the Northern Districts Senior Secondary School cricket tournament in Gisborne from December 16-20.
The Bay of Plenty region will also be represented by the Bay of Plenty Lakeland team, who are drawn from theEastern Bay of Plenty, Rotorua and Taupo regions.
In last season's title decider, the Coastland representatives took an unbeaten record into the two-day championship match.
Batting first against Hamilton, the Bay side posted 200, with Tom MacRury, who has gone on to play for the Bay senior men's team, blasting a century.
Led by this year's vice-captain, Brody Gilroy, the Coastland representatives then dismissed the Waikato team for 166 to take first-innings points. Gilroy stepped up to the plate for his team, grabbing five wickets at a cost of 33 runs. The match petered out in a draw with Coastland winning the ND title courtesy of first-innings points.
Long-time Coastland coach Peter Swan will be chasing his third ND title - while new Lakeland coach Mark Crawford has earned his new stripes courtesy of successful campaigns with junior representative sides in recent seasons.
Other Bay of Plenty players are likely to play at the tournament, with an invitation composite team to take the place of Waikato Valley.
