A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
We're almost there.
It was the penultimate Saturday of the 30-over, nine-a-side Junior League at Nelson Park. The Tairawhiti Women's Cricket Club Hortigro Colts beat the Bollywood Stars by 19 runs, the Bollywood High School Old Boys' Pups were 15-run victors over the David File Decorators Old Boys' Rugby Sharks and the DNature Dragons won the closest game of the fifth round, against the Ngatapa Knights, by 11 runs.
In the Knights-versus-Dragons clash, Ngatapa captain Aiden Armstrong won the toss and chose to bat. The Knights reached 172-9 on the back of opening batsman Gus Moylan's innings of 33 from 32 balls.
Seamers Ari Robertson, 2-12 off four overs, Keanu Makiri, 2-39 off four, and Akira Makiri (who also effected two run-outs), 1-17, were the Dragons' best with the ball.
Batting for the Dragons, first-drop Nathaniel Fearnley hit 37 runs off 22 balls for the highest score of the game.Akira Makiri, in at No.7, scored 28 from 27 balls. The Dragons lost 11 wickets in total — two were during the “grace period” for opener Keanu Makiri and No.6 Jett Whittaker. Batsmen cannot be given out in the first six balls they face (their grace period) but if they would otherwise have been dismissed, the opposition are awarded five runs per dismissal. The game ended with last-man-in Eruera Lucas surviving his fourth ball. The score was 183 in 26.1 overs. At that stage, two further wickets would not have given Ngatapa victory.
The Dragons' Nathaniel Fearnley was a happy captain: “The Knights put us under pressure, but it was simple: we needed Akira, my younger brother Brandon (13 retired, at No.8) and Eruera to hold it together with the bat, and they did.”
Batsmanship was again a major factor as the Pups edged the Sharks by 15 runs.
The Pups' Taye McGuinness is unable to bat because of an injury to his left arm but he is a thoughtful captain. Having won the toss, HSOB made 143-11 in 28.5 overs. In-form keeper-batsman Daniel Bailie top-scored with 25 from No.2 and second-drop Caleb Taewa retired for 19.
The Sharks have a good pace attack. Joel Kirkpatrick took 2-8 off four overs, Ben Langford, 2-13 off 3.5, and Oliver Mackintosh 2-22 off three.
The bat-versus-ball contest with these players is interesting at this the end of the season, as their technical ability and confidence have developed.
The Sharks lost 10 wickets on their way to 128 in 30 overs. Last-man-in Langford hit two fours and timed the ball well for 17 runs from 25 balls. He was their best batsman.
For the Pups, Malsha Mahabalage took 3-10 off five overs, and McGuinness took 2-12 off five overs of tight medium-pace; Bailie took 1-7 in two overs of leg-spin.
What constitutes a wide?
Yes, the TWCC put up 219-8 in 30 overs against the Stars, but aside from keeper-captain Grace Kuil's impressive 61 from 47 balls at No.8, the highest individual score was 11, by Claudia Wallace, in at four.
The Stars' 87 extras included 52 wides and 15 no-balls.
Philburgh Viljoen took 2-15 in four overs of good pace and Anikate Bandral, whose first exposure to representative cricket came at Riverbend this year at Year 7B level for Poverty Bay under Andrew Scott and David Milne, took 2-16 off three overs. Some bowlers gave the TWCC little to hit.
When the Stars batted, the women went seven better on wides with 59, while conceding 66 sundries. The Stars' three main runscorers were Connor Starck (36 off 34 balls, at No.8), second-drop Riker Rolls (31 off 30) and Arlo Willis (23 off 30 balls, batting at five), in a total of 200-10 in 28.3 overs; both Rolls and Willis retired.
TWCC opening bowler Tegan Hayward took 2-20 in four overs and first-change Savannah McGhee took 2-22 from four. Both teams had bowlers operating at good pace, and who tested the likes of Kuil and Starck.
“The Junior Colts have gone from strength to strength,” Poverty Bay operations manager Nic Hendrie said.
“We've seen the standard of cricket at this level get better and better. We've had 11 fifties, a hat-trick and a five-for this season.
“These players are awesome to coach: we've seen so many personal milestones this year it's hard to count them.”