A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Round 11 could be the best yet in this Hope Cup season.
With five weeks of the Senior B club competition left to play, three fast-moving 30-over games — with the teams evenly matched — are a go tomorrow from 2pm.
While the outfields of both the Harry Barker Reserve and Nelson Park grounds are in superb condition, cricketers are nonetheless delighted to return to the grass wickets of the Reserve from the artificial pitches at Nelson Park.
Bollywood Stars High School Old Boys Presidents (10 points), whose game against competition leaders the Civil Project Solutions Ngatapa Green Caps (25pts) on HBR 1 will be umpired by James Raroa, are coming off a 94-run win against Campion College.
Presidents captain and wicketkeeper Ollie Needham shared a 136-run opening stand with Jarrod Renouf (101) last weekend, but is wary of complacency.
“We're looking forward to a close tussle with Ngatapa and seeing whether Jarrod Renouf can back up against a quality bowling attack,” he said.
“Matt Jefferd makes his return for us and with Jason Lines unavailable, there's an opportunity for someone else to step up with the new ball.
“We have depth but we'll need to bowl and field well as a unit to restrict Grant Walsh, Ryan West and last week's hero Charles Morrison, who carried his bat for 68 in the Caps' three-wicket win against Horouta Te Waka.
“Playing against the father-son Hurlstone pairing of Chris and Luke will be special, too.”
Both West and Walsh have made two 50s this season. Jefferd is a good, solid all-rounder.
Ngatapa skipper Mike Gibson has identified one work-on for his posse: ‘The catching was poor last week, but our boys will go out and enjoy their cricket against good opposition.”
Walsh and West are placed at fourth and fifth respectively on the bowlers' leaderboard but Rawhiti Legal OBR (19pts) want the grade's No.1 bowler to fire them to victory over The Waka on HBR 4 under umpire Gary Coutts.
Tall left-armer Reynolds has taken 20 wickets in just seven games at an average of seven runs a wicket, and he is a thoughtful operator.
OBR captain Craig Christophers will also have a powerful striker of the ball, gloveman Thom Berry, and medium-pace bowling all-rounder Phil Viljoen senior back on deck.
Around experienced players such as these, and with Gisborne Boys' High School's player-stocks such that Ben Langford and Zyden Worsnop can be released to assist OBR, keen cricketers thrive.
Horouta captain Mel Knight has local cricket's newest century-maker, Grace Kuil (105 for the Tairawhiti Women's Cricket Club against the GBHS Life Guards in the Wednesday night Challenge Cup) in her batting line-up, alongside Aman Kamboj.
Off-spinner Knight and left-arm orthodox spinner Clarence Campbell both have 10 wickets apiece for what is a settled, well-organised side.
Knight said: “We have plenty of bowling options; it'll be key to set the right fields and bowl to those, because we know that OBR have a strong top-order.
“When we bat, partnerships will be required and we'll probably need someone in the top five to score big runs.”
GBHS captain George Gillies may or may not know that the Achilles heel of many local teams, past and present, has been batting: not enough runs to defend, too many runs to chase. Poor shot-selection, technique, placement and game-sense with the bat cripples teams that can bowl and field well.
In tomorrow's all-schoolboy derby on the practice wicket, batsmen out to prove that Challenge Cup form can be carried over to senior club cricket, will have their chance to do that.
Gillies (59 not out for the Blues and Royals), Dylan Torrie (65 for the Life Guards) and wicketkeeper Kavindu Withanage (50 not-out) were all good value midweek. They now face a Campion team under Hamish Swann, who made 47 from No.1 against HSOB Presidents last week. Rhys Grogan has come back from injury, and Charlie Whitfield is a promising young cricketer.
Grogan, in Round 7, was the leading wicket-taker in the competition with 14 wickets, having taken 3-12 from six overs in the four-run win to the college on December 11, 2021 — the teams' last meeting.
Swann means business: “We work well as a team, enjoy our cricket and look forward to it each week.
“And I think we'll take some catches early on tomorrow.”