Challenge Cup’s Round 3 sees closest contest yet

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

The Life Guards beat the Blues and Royals by four runs in a brilliant finish to their Gisborne Boys' High School T20 Challenge Cup derby.

Off the first ball of the 19th over of this Senior C Grade cricket match, pace bowler Robbie Newlands had Brandon Fearnley (one run) caught at the wicket by his co-captain Zyden Worsnop with the score at 92 — five runs short of a Blues and Royals victory.

The Life Guards won the toss and chose to bat. Worsnop faced the first ball of the match — played on Friday at Gisborne Intermediate School — and made 47, hitting a six and four fours. He and Bryant Baxter (6) got them off to a rollicking start, only for the Blues to bounce back, leather in hand.

Caleb Taewa, their spearhead, took 2-10; fellow left-armer Jack Holden took 2-9; and Fearnley, Taewa's new ball partner, bowled three overs for only seven runs.

Second-change swing bowler Finn Robertson brought the innings to an end at 96, five balls into the 18th over, when he bowled eighth-man-in Leyton Hall for three.

The highlight of the run-chase for the Blues was Gayesha Mahabalage’s 37 from No.2. It included six boundaries. That the elegant opener was able to convert his C Grade form into a B Grade start (15, batting at No.5 against Rawhiti Legal Old Boys Rugby) the next day was a great result.

The Blues’ biggest partnership was a stand of 28 between Mahabalage and game-day captain Taewa (7), at first drop. Robertson’s 14 from No.4 was the second-highest score for them.

Newlands returned the best bowling figures for the Guards with 2-5 from 2.1 overs as the game came down to the wire.

Bowling down the slope and releasing the ball from a height, he went through Sol Bevins (3) with good pace before drawing the outside edge from Fearnley.

This Round 3 match, scheduled for Wednesday at Nelson Park but played on Friday, was the closest game of the competition so far. The Blues and Royals (4 competition points) beat Campion College (2) by six wickets in Game 1; the Game 2 clash, Campion versus the Life Guards (4pts) a fortnight ago, was cancelled and the Guards joined the winners’ circle with their four-run win last Friday.