First trophy of Poverty Bay Premier cricket season up for grabs: Gisborne HSOB v Horouta

High School Old Boys stalwart Glen Udall is working more on his golf swing rather than his batting these days, but he will once again don the blues for his club in Saturday's Poverty Bay Premier Grade Doleman Cup final at Harry Barker Reserve. Photo / Paul Rickard

Captain Jagroop Singh and his Moshim’s Horouta Te Waka team could be stepping out in front of a bus at 1pm on Saturday.

Horouta face a Dave Castle-led Bollywood High School Old Boys on the hunt for their third consecutive Poverty Bay Premier Grade club cricket triple crown - the first leg of that the Doleman Cup final on the representative wicket at Harry Barker Reserve.

HSOB comfortably won five Doleman Cup games in a row this season - twice beating Gisborne Boys’ High First XI and OBR and putting away Horouta by eight wickets (they forfeited their round 6 clash against Horouta) - to book their place in the final.

Horouta won four games and lost two - to OBR and HSOB - and it was enough to claim a berth in the final.

HSOB, at the command of Castle, have a mix of left-arm pace, left-arm orthodox spin, youth and in-form batsmen.

No Premier club team in Poverty Bay Cricket’s history before this side had made 388-5 in 40 overs as they did against GBHS on November 2. Castle put up 118 at second drop and leftie Carl Shaw 87 at No 5.

Horouta will never die wondering. They are an attacking side with the bat. They like to hit the ball hard and play with flair.

Whether they are allowed that freedom will depend on HSOB, who only have to point to their trophy haul over the past two seasons to answer in the negative.

Poverty Bay Cricket’s director of umpires, Jason Trowill, will be in charge of the first Premier final of the 2024-2025 season.

The Senior B Grade T20 final on HBR No 2 at 2pm pits last season’s Hope Cup runners-up Chicking High School Old Boys’ Presidents, under Jeff Chambers, against a Civil Project Solutions Ngatapa Green Caps unit, who can rise to the occasion.

The Caps have as their captain a stylish stroke-maker and off-spin bowling all-rounder in Charles Morrison.

Openers Jacque Davis (season high score of [73) and Zac Borrie (64) have been among the Green and Whites’ best with the bat.

The scalps of Davis, Borrie or Morrison would be a huge boost to a HSOB unit which, steered as they are now by left-arm orthodox spinner Sean Moran, know who constitutes a danger and to what degree.

Ngatapa won the first clash between the sides on November 16 by four wickets on the back of a 45 run-stand by Morrison and Borrie, though the Blues’ platoon of finger-spinners claimed five victims.

Bollywood High School Old Boys: David Castle (c), Anthony Boyder, David Gray, Rhys Grogan, Keegan Jooste, Stephen Lamb, Taye McGuinness, Jak Rowe, Carl Shaw, Connor Starck, Daniel Torrie, Glen Udall.

Moshim’s Horouta Te Waka: Jagroop Singh (c), Shubham Ralhan (vc), Simar Basra, Inderpreet Singh Bassi, Himanshu Bhargav, Harmanpreet Singh Gill, Teghbir Cheema, Baljeet Jaiya, Jatinder Kumar, Viren Patel, Gautam Sareen (wkp), Pawan Verma.

Chicking HSOB Presidents: Sean Moran (c), Oliver Needham (vc, wkp), Simon Blaker, Blake Crosby, Thomas Crosby, Matthew Jefferd, Justin Kohere, Buddikha Kumarage, Nathan Quimpo, Johan Roodt, Jett Whitaker.

CPS Ngatapa Green Caps: Charles Morrison (c), Zachary Borrie, Bradley Carruthers, Brent Gallagher, Archie Gillies, Michael Gibson, Oliver Jonasen, Hoffman Haasbroek, Edward Nepe, Jack Roberts, George Whitehead.