Harry Barker Reserve a treasure

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

If ever the Harry Barker Reserve was appreciated as a sports venue, that time should be now.

While club and schools cricket across Hawke’s Bay has had to be cancelled until March, Poverty Bay Cricket will once again — starting with the secondary schools’ T20 Challenge Cup tomorrow at 3.30pm — run at its headquarters.

Poverty Bay Cricket Association development officer and competitions administrator Josiah Turner said that health and well-being were at the heart of efforts to return to normality.

In terms of the Challenge Cup, Turner felt it important that young people in the district had the option and opportunity to be active. Organised sport had a part to play there.

Round 3 of the competition’s six-week season has Gisborne Boys’ High School’s Blues and Royals playing the Tairawhiti Women’s Cricket Club on HBR 4. The GBHS Admiralty play Campion College on HBR 3.

The Blues, under skipper Nathaniel Fearnley, won the GBHS derby on HBR 1 by 14 runs a fortnight ago and the Taye McGuinness-led Campion claimed a four-wicket victory over the TWCC on the representative wicket.

Although Fearnley supports the mantra of participation and enjoyment (to that end, he hopes to see much-improved all-rounder Keanu Makiri hit a six in Round 3), the women have in hard-hitting Grace Kuil a skipper who can give the ball some hammer, whether at first-drop or elsewhere.

Kuil made 23 out of the team total of 108 all out in 19.2 overs in the season opener against Campion.

The last time TWCC locked horns with the Blues, at Nelson Park 3 on November 16 last year, Fearnley made 76 and Finn Robertson took 2-4 to be the GBHS MVP (most valuable player). His captain described the young outswing bowler’s line and length as “pretty much perfect”. Boys’ High will need it to be fairly much on the spot again tomorrow, as Kuil’s 53-ball 105 against the Life Guards a year ago was no fluke.

If the bowling is ordinary, she will hit the bad ball harder and further than she did on that memorable occasion.

Gone now are the despised batting retirements of C Grade past.

While McGuinness, Campion first 11 captain Hamish Swann and Rhys Grogan are all capable of dominating proceedings in the Challenge Cup, they prefer at this level to play a role in developing the college’s players of the future. Left-arm medium-pace bowler Joe Singh and leg-spinner Anikate Bandral are among their hardest-working and most committed cricketers.

The Harry Barker Reserve outfields and wickets, the best of which have been compared to the best nationally for more than 50 years, have come through Cyclone Gabrielle superbly.