Another return for the summer game

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

THE summer game returns — again — tomorrow after the weather last week meant all local games were cancelled.

This weekend, Bollywood Stars High School Old Boys and Coastal Concrete OBR will hope to continue their winning ways after strong early performances.

Meanwhile, Galaxy World Gisborne Boys' High School and Siteworx Civil Horouta will look to right the wrongs of first-up losses.

HSOB captain Carl Shaw said they had “lots of positives to celebrate” after the first weekend out this season, but still had things to improve on.

“As long as we improve a little each week we will do well and enjoy our season.”

He expects a tough challenge from OBR. He says they always play hard but are also “great guys” off the field.

“We will need to be better than last week, but I believe we can be.”

OBR captain Nick Greeks said they were happy with their first-week performance, finding the win with nine players.

He expects a tough challenge from HSOB, and will look to experienced players Paul Stewart, Jimmy Holden and Matt Cook to apply the pressure.

“They have a strong squad and multiple match-winners, so taking all our chance will be important.”

GBHS captain Nathan Trowell said his side needed to form some longer-lasting partnerships than they managed against HSOB if they wanted to be successful.

Only three players — all down the order — reached double-digit scores last time out.

Trowell said the team's top four batsmen would need to step up if they were to beat Horouta.

“The keys to victory will be getting early wickets and building partnerships with the bat.”

Horouta captain David Situ said their top-order batsmen would also need to make a step up after struggling to establish themselves against the line and length of HSOB.

“Learnings (from last week) were to just give ourselves a bit of time to get in, punish the bad ball and trust ourselves to push on later in our innings.”

He said their key to victory tomorrow would be to get the crucial wicket of GBHS batsman Graham Sharp cheaply, then maintain the pressure by keeping things tight and not making silly mistakes.