A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
They came heart-breakingly close.
But the Gisborne Boys’ High School first 11 couldn’t stave off outright defeat against Napier Boys’ High in a two-day cricket game at Napier this week.
Forced to follow on, the Paul Stewart-led Gisborne side were bowled out for 90 in 27.4 overs with only two balls left to be bowled in the match.
“It was a good game,” Stewart said.
“We had to toil for a long time in the field but bowled well. Our MVP (most valuable player) was off-spinner Daniel Stewart, who took 3-46 off 21 overs, including six maidens.”
On Monday, Napier captain and New Zealand Maori Schoolboys representative Mitchell Williams-North won the toss and opted to bat in excellent conditions.
The home team declared their innings closed at 321-9 after 79.2 overs.
Second-drop Logan Trower made 67 before he was brilliantly caught and bowled by left-arm orthodox spinner Adam Whibley (2-59 off 14 overs). No.3 Baylee Foote got to 60 before he was bowled by leg-spinner Travis Mitchell (2-77 off 14). Foote misread the wrong ’un, tried to play a cut shot and chopped the ball on to his stumps.
Jacob Colbert (2-17 off 6.2 overs) also did well for a bowling line-up who have missed Poverty Bay men’s senior representative seamer-cum-wicketkeeper Paul Stewart since he strained ligaments in his left ankle in Gisborne’s DJ Barry Cup opener on January 19.
Gisborne ended the first day’s play at 25-0, then lost opener Mitchell for 26. The score then was 31-1. No.2 Jack Faulkner (23) and first-drop Paul Stewart (32) made the only other individual scores of note.
Gisborne were bowled out for 102 in 53.4 overs. Leg-spinner James Rawnsley (4-20 off 12.4 overs), paceman Trower (2-7 off six), off-spinner Foote (2-11 off six) and 15-year-old firebrand Sam Pawson (2-21 off 10) were excellent value for Napier first time around.
Second time around — Gisborne having had to follow-on 219 runs behind — Foote took 4-44 off 10, Rawnsley 3-7 off seven and Trower 3-10 off 3.4.
Year 10 student Ben Phelps and 13-year-old Sebastian Wilson fell a ball apart to Trower in the 28th over; two balls remained in the day’s play when the 10th wicket fell.
Williams-North said his side batted well and the best of their bowlers were the “spin twins” Rawnsley and Foote.
“They bowled to the fields set, and frustrated Gisborne out,” said Williams-North, whose Year 12 opening bowler Harry Campbell held two difficult catches at second slip and was Napier’s MVP.
They cheated death. Well, not quite.
But while Napier Boys’ High Colts claimed a moral victory over Gisborne Boys’ High, the Nathan Trowell-led Gisborne side denied the hosts outright victory in their two-day match.
Napier captain Thomas Hall won the toss and chose to bat. Napier declared at 232-6 after 42.5 overs with big left-hander Hall’s departure for 110, off 107 balls, from second-drop.
Trowell’s pace attack had held up: Noah Torrance-Cribb, left-armer Lukas Fry, vice-captain Cohen Loffler and Trowell took a wicket each. Promising leg-spinners Dylan Foster and David Gray both turned the ball and also took a wicket each.
Gray, Foster, Torrance-Cribb, DJ Penfold and Henry Watson held one catch apiece on what was a steep but important learning curve for 13- and 14-year-olds accustomed to playing shorter forms of the game.
Trowell, ably assisted by Loffler, had a rare opportunity to fine-tune field settings, apply pressure to batsmen and rotate bowlers according to effectiveness as opposed to “by the numbers”.
Gisborne were 61-4 at the end of Day 1 and lost Trowell for 17 (caught in the gully off the first ball he faced on Day 2), but wicketkeeper Jack Whitehead-McKay then played an innings of character for 40 from No.7.
Whitehead-McKay hit five boundaries in his 84-ball innings and batted valuable time. Gisborne were bowled out for 124 in 56.5 overs — a fair measure of their attempts to grasp the tempo of two-day cricket and the quality Napier attack on their artificial wicket. Hall took 5-23 off 12 overs, including six maiden overs.
Following on, Gisborne showed enough improvement with the bat — and batted just long enough — to deny the hosts an outright win. Trowell made 76 off 146 balls with seven boundaries and Torrance-Cribb, batting at No.9, scored 23 from 28 balls.
Napier’s MVP Hall (4-30) and his new-ball partner Charlie Geange (1-33) bowled 13 and 12 overs respectively, and were superb. Gisborne’s combined scores of 124 and 137 (261 in total) set Napier a target of 30 runs to win by the close of play, scheduled for 3pm. But Gisborne’s last wicket fell at 2.54pm and, with a 10-minute break for the change of innings, Napier did not have the time to chase.
“We bowled well to a good batting side that put us under pressure, but struggled to build partnerships with the bat ourselves,” Trowell said.
“Still, David Gray (10 not out from No.11) and Jack Whitehead-McKay (40) were awesome for us, with their 49-run partnership for the 10th wicket in our first innings.”
Trowell’s 48-run eighth-wicket stand with the hard-hitting Torrance-Cribb in Gisborne’s second innings was also important; the Gisborne captain was his side’s MVP.
The Gisborne first 11 and Colts now look forward to hosting Hastings Boys’ High School at Harry Barker Reserve this month.