“I was impressed with the enthusiasm and attitude of our Year 9 lads — pace bowler Marcus Gray, left-armer Charlie Whitfield and leg-spinner Rylan Crosby.
“Boys’ High left-arm pace bowler Caleb Taewa (4-11 in four overs, including a hat-trick) was as superb with the ball as Kavindu had been with the bat.”
Fry won the toss on Ground 4 and GBHS batted for their full complement of 30 overs for the first time this season, opener Dylan Torrie making 15, their second-best individual score. Torrie and Withanage, then Withanage and Dylan Worsnop (13) shared Boys’ High’s largest partnerships, both worth 33, for the second and sixth wickets respectively.
HSOB first-change seamer Yegan Lanka swung the ball prodigiously into the right-handers, and also nipped it away, to take 3-19 from six overs.
Fry made a sensational start to the game by bowling Presidents No.2 Billy Stackhouse for a duck with the first ball of the second over. HSOB skipper Needham fell leg before wicket to Nathaniel Fearnley (2-18 in 5.1 overs) two balls into the seventh over — a big moment in the game — and former Poverty Bay Cricket chairman Isaac Hughes made a 17-ball duck shortly afterwards.
Jeff Chambers (56) and Nathan Quimpo (11) then put on 72 for the fourth wicket in Presidents’ biggest partnership.
Left-arm orthodox spinner Riker Rolls (1-5 in three overs) had his first ball, a loosener, dispatched for four runs but after that conceded only one run in three overs: his second over was a maiden, his third a wicket maiden.
The loss of Quimpo — caught by Fry from a top edge playing the sweep-shot against Rolls — with the score at 107, was a blow for HSOB but the fall of Chambers, caught by Worsnop off the bowling of Akira Makiri (2-43 in six overs) three balls into the 25th over with the score 123-5 rivalled Needham’s departure in its significance.
With the score at 142-6 after 27 overs, Taewa came back for his second spell, with a vengeance. He took a hat-trick — Gray, Whitfield and Crosby — with the second, third and fourth balls of the 28th over, all bowled. Fearnley then had his younger brother Brandon caught by Withanage off the first ball of the 29th over to end the game.
Taewa and Lanka were the GBHS and Presidents CricHQ MVPs (most valuable players) in Round 12.
Needham and Chambers now rank third and sixth on the batting leaderboard. Withanage’s 54 is only the second half-century scored by a GBHS player to date this season, after Kelan Bryant’s 54 against Horouta Te Waka on December 4 last year. Gisborne Boys’ High spearhead Makiri (17 wickets in 10 games) sits in third place on the bowlers’ leaderboard.
Boys’ High captain and left-arm speedster Fry (1-14 in three overs) was ecstatic: “We set a respectable target and put HSOB under pressure by batting well and then Caleb won the game for us.”
Ngatapa did what they needed to do to subdue OBR.
The Civil Project Solutions Ngatapa Green Caps beat a team without many of their regulars by six wickets, but Rawhiti Legal OBR under Thom Berry Rose to the challenge of fielding a competitive side on Saturday.
Gisborne Boys’ High School students Jack Holden, Jett Whitaker, Zyden Worsnop and Adolf von Staden — whose father Cecil von Staden played his first game in 30-odd years, with him on Saturday — turned out for OBR.
Berry was a relieved and proud skipper.
“Early last week, having only four of our boys available, I thought we’d have to default,” he said.
“To get 11 players on the field and actually make a game of it was a real buzz.”
Berry won the toss on Ground 2, chose to bat and carried his bat against Ngatapa with 120. He thumped a 6 and 10 fours.
Worsnop, as first-drop, made OBR’s next best individual score of 21, with Von Staden junior getting off the mark in Senior club cricket at No.7. OBR got to 184-6. They had batted to term in a remarkable effort. Ngatapa captain Mike Gibson, a tidy medium-pacer, took 3-43 from five overs.
Ngatapa opener Jack Jefferd (92 not out), No.5 Nathan Proctor (50) and second-drop Will Faulks (21) were the Green Caps’ major contributors.
Holden had a great game, holding a catch off leg-spinner Mana Taumanu (2-31 in four overs) to dismiss Jefferd’s partner Charles Morrison seven balls into the second innings. Bowling at first-change, tiny left-arm swing bowler Holden later bowled the giant Faulks. Holden took 1-28 from five overs.
“The Berry-versus-Jefferd Show was great, as long as you weren’t a bowler,” said Gibson of the teams’ respective MVPs.
“It was a great effort by Thom to patiently guide his team, and make a decent game of it for both sides.”
Campion made Horouta Te Waka work hard to retain the Naden-Taylor Trophy.
Billy Morse, deputising for regular Horouta captain Mel Knight, won the toss. His bowlers and fielding unit did a fine job of restricting their young opponents to 108-8 on the practice wicket’s tiny boundaries, and he led The Waka to victory by four wickets.
Taye McGuinness made 23 from No.6 to lead Campion’s scorers. His captain, Hamish Swann, who last week made 22 in Campion’s excellent win against Gisborne Boys’ High School and two weeks ago reached 47 against HSOB Presidents at Nelson Park — on both occasions, from No.1 — finished on 7 not out, from No.8.
Opening bowler Morse (2-13) and left-arm orthodox spinner Mike Tapp (2-14), on as first change, both bowled out.
The Waka were in some bother early on, being 10-4 with one ball remaining in the fourth over.
Tapp, who came in at No.5, was out for 3 off 22 balls but his 30-run partnership for the fifth wicket with big hitter Harmanpreet Gill (63no) settled things for Horouta. Gill hit a six and seven fours in just 50 balls.
Rhys Grogan (2-16) and Campion MVP Connor Starck (2-14) bowled to their usual high standard through overs 1 to 8.
Horouta brought up the win with a boundary.
Morse, who along with his two wickets held a catch and ran out Joe Singh (4) to be Te Waka’s MVP, said: “Campion made us work hard and we faced two of the best bowlers in the Hope Cup in Rhys and Connor.
“Taye will be a splendid cricketer. His technique’s solid and that defensive push will become a flourishing drive soon enough.
“Harmanpreet steadied the ship for us in a good match. We really enjoyed having the guest players Micah Langford of GBHS, Eruera Lucas of Lytton High School and Savanah McGhee of Gisborne Girls’ HS/Tairawhiti Women’s Cricket Club and I’m sure they enjoyed it too.”
Campion coach Mark Naden knows well the slings and arrows of cricket: “That game ebbed and flowed — we were two wickets down with four runs on the board batting first, but reached 110. We then had Horouta 8 for 4 and 40-5, but dropped Harmanpreet on 54-odd.
“He went on to make 63no and win the game.”