Te Puke Blue take out Western Bay cricket’s divsion one championship

Te Puke Blue, winners of Western Bay Cricket's Classic Builders Division One Championship title. Photo / Supplied

A five-wicket bag and a century played big parts in the two local teams taking home the trophies up for grabs in the Western Bay of Plenty Cricket titles.

Te Puke Blue came from fourth place in the qualifying competition to dominate proceedings in the Classic Builders Division One Championship title match on Saturday.

The Te Puke Cricket Club representatives were removed by Falcons for 144, with opener Mayank Tandon top scoring with 45 runs.

The Falcons’ reply was in tatters at 5 for 26, which quickly became 7 for 35.

Their best, 11 runs from Gurpreet Singh batting at No.10, was the story of an innings that was routed with just 65 runs on the board.

Mandeep Singh Brar, who opened the attack with the ball, did most of the damage taking five wickets for 21 runs. Sukhpreet Singh also made a big contribution with three wickets at a cost of 21 runs.

The Western Bay of Plenty Cricket finals series opened on Wednesday, when Pāpāmoa and Aquinas College met to decide the Classic Builders Reserve Grade Plate title.

Pāpāmoa took charge of the encounter at the Bay Oval to reach 244 for the loss of eight wickets. Andrew Goldsmith was in rampant form smashing 131 at a little better than a run a ball.

Batting at No.4, Goldsmith’s big score came from 135 balls, which included 13 fours and four sixes. The Aquinas students were bowled out for 151 to hand Pāpāmoa an emphatic 93-run win.

During the season, three Te Puke division one players wrote their names on the season honours board. The Mandeep Singh Brar five-wicket bag in Saturday’s title decider took him to the top of the championship bowling stakes with 17 wickets. Mayank Tandon (113no) and Bikram Sandhu (100no) recorded centuries, with Pāpāmoa division one batsman Jason Schumacher belting the season’s second-highest score of 158 against Tauranga Boys’ College.

Te Puke and Pāpāmoa reserve grade players, too, were mentioned in the season dispatches. Pāpāmoa Kings’ Aman Mahal (116) and Te Puke batter Tai Bridgeman-Raison (107no) hit three-figure scores, while Andrew Goldsmith (6/15) and Caleb Farrington (6/33) had success with the ball.

WBOPCA Championship finals 2023

Classic Builders Division One Championship

Te Puke Blue 144 (Mayank Tandon 45, Nasib Kumar 5/28) defeated Falcons 65 (Mandeep Singh Brar 5/21, Sukhpreet Singh 3/21)

Classic Builders Reserve Grade Plate

Pāpāmoa 244/8 (Andrew Goldsmith (131; Ben Parlane 3/38) defeated Aquinas College 151 (Michael Rowland 61)