A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
CRICKET
Just one last thing to take care of.
The Gisborne Girls’ High School first 11 won the inaugural T15 Colts cricket league final against the Bollywood High School Old Boys’ Pups on Friday, and this Saturday they face the Bollywood Stars for the T30 title.
Pups captain Hamish Swann won the toss, opting to bat first: he hit six boundaries in a 24 ball-innings of 30 from No.1. The Pups reached 104-5 in 15 completed overs, third-change seamer Grace Levy being the most successful of the GGHS bowlers with 2-14-3, with support from Alessandra Evans (1-12-2) and Alyssa Swann (1-13-3).
Levy and her captain, Kayley Knight, both retired not out for 30 runs each as an opening pair: Girls’ High won the game by three wickets in 13.1 overs. Left-arm speedster Lukas Fry took 2-14-2 for the Pups.
Knight said: “I was pleased that both Grace and I retired, with Alyssa (six not out) and Mandy Pardoe (11 not out) then bringing the game home.”
SATURDAY T30 COLTS
Necessity is the mother of invention — the Bollywood Stars proved that in their Colts T30 league cricket match against the Auto Tyre Eagles at Nelson Park on Saturday morning.
Stars captain Liam Barbier won the toss, both sides having only six players in what was scheduled to be a nine-a-side clash, and the Stars made hay.
“Dylan (Foster) was huge with the bat and Connor (Starck) was fabulous with the ball,” said Barbier, who — like his opposite, Eagles skipper Noah Torrance-Cribb — had to work overtime to plug gaps with only four fieldsmen, but took full advantage of the same situation with the bat in hand.
“Having just four to beat, and more space between them, made our lives easier.”
The Stars reached 243-2-30, first-drop Foster top-scoring with 92 retired not out — including 15 boundaries — off just 50 balls. No.5 Starck (27 from 29), second-drop Jonty Fenn (25 off 31), opener Jacob Scholefield (22 from 30) and No.6 Riker Rolls (20 off 29) all played positively.
Eagles medium-pacers Aiden Armstrong (1-31-4) and Jett Whitaker (1-50-5) were rewarded for their persistence with the ball, theirs being a curtain-raiser for the bowling display of round 7. Starck’s out-swing produced 5-8-4 in 3.4 overs, bowling Whitaker with the first ball of the second innings.
The Stars dismissed the Eagles for 38 in 11.4 overs to claim victory by 205 runs — Brayden Sycamore of the Eagles was unbeaten with 16 off 14.
The Dnature Dragons were efficient and made no fuss as they beat a six-man Eastland Broncos crew by five wickets.
The Broncos won the toss and batted first, but lost Ben Langford — caught by Theo Mackay at cover off the bowling of Nathaniel Fearnley — first ball of the innings.
Langford’s opening partner George Gillies (22 off 23) and first-drop Sam Briant (43 from 32) were in good form, but the Broncos were nevertheless bowled out for 98 in 17.4 overs.
Dnature wicket keeper cum leg spinner Alex Shanks took 2-5 in 2.4 overs, and opening bowler Tayler McGuinness was great value in a spell of 1-7-3.
First-drop Nathaniel Fearnley (33 not out off 21 balls), No.5 Alex Shanks (an unbeaten 32 from 14) and second-drop Bekko Page (20 off 16) then ensured victory for the Dragons. These players have an excellent batting mentality: they find gaps, they run hard between wickets and they punish the bad ball.
Briant, with 1-10-3, bowled well for the Broncos.
Gisborne Girls’ High School are playing good cricket under captain Kayley Knight.
The most experienced team in both Colts leagues won a superb contest against the Bollywood High School Old Boys’ Pups by 52 runs. Not here the disciplined run chase of the Dnature Dragons, or the Stars’ subtle placement — this game was decided by aggressive strokeplay.
GGHS won the toss and made 257 all out in 29 overs. Knight opened the batting and hit 87 not out off only 59 balls, with Grace Kuil (63 from 29, at No.6) and wicket keeper first-drop Grace Levy (38 off 26) also seizing their opportunity. Seamer John Broad (3-29-4) and left-armer Dylan Torrie (2-26-4) held firm in the face of hard-hit shots.
The Pups then showed steel with the bat — despite having only eight players — to reach 205 all out in 22 overs. Thirteen-year-old Lukas Fry played a brilliant innings of 58 off 35 balls, and Poverty Bay Cricket deserves credit for allowing players to excel, rather than adhering rigidly to a “must retire” at 30 balls/30 runs policy: the leagues’ structures have evolved and kept pace as the players’ skills have developed.
In addition to Fry’s maiden half-century, Pups captain and opener Hamish Swann compiled an unbeaten 37 from 31 balls, both Broad and Malsha Mahabalage scoring 30 runs each at No.5 and No.6 respectively. Swann’s team took up the challenge of trying to chase down 257 and were magnificent in the attempt.
Levy (3-15-3) and Knight (1-14-1) were GGHS’s best bowlers in what was a tremendous game of cricket.