A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Well might Carl Shaw have a smile on his face.
The Bollywood High School Old Boys captain hit opposition skipper Nick Greeks for six and took 3-7 sharing the new ball with Poverty Bay bowler Jak Rowe against Coastal Concrete Old Boys Rugby on Saturday.
“We bowled well to plan and got results,” Shaw said.
“The game's in the balance . . . it's exciting to play two-day cricket.”
Day 1 of Round 2 in the two-day DJ Barry Cup premier grade club cricket championship had the top-of-the-table HSOB-OBR clash switched from the representative wicket at the Harry Barker Reserve to the No.2 ground.
Both the HSOB-OBR game and that between the Galaxy World Gisborne Boys' High School first 11 and Horouta Te Waka on the No.1 ground had a delayed start.
Shaw won the toss and in overcast conditions — though with only one break in play forced by rain — the HSOB batsmen put their noses to the grindstone.
Openers Baxter Mackay (26) and David Salmon (47) are superb to watch in full flow but they put on 54 the hard way at the weekend — application to the fore.
Greeks held two incredible catches at short cover to account for both Mackay and Shaw (34), who came in at No.6. The in-form Mackay was the first of OBR first-change swing bowler Jimmy Holden's six victims.
Holden took 6-20 from 11.1 overs, five of which were maidens. Left-arm orthodox spinner Greeks took 2-20 from nine overs and spearhead Cohen Loffler, 1-21 from eight. OBR's attack bowled with discipline and nous to restrict the grade's best batting line-up to 131 from 51.1 overs.
In these days of positive umpiring (in which more leg-before-wicket decisions are given out, as opposed to the decades in which batsmen using their pads as a first line of defence were permitted to do so), Holden's reward for bowling full and straight was four lbw dismissals. Six batsmen were out lbw in the innings, as Greeks also benefited twice.
Soon enough the boot was on the other foot, though not by dint of lbw decisions. Tall medium-pacer Shaw was the most successful bowler. Rowe took 1-23 from seven overs and his fellow left-armer, the orthodox spinner Daniel Torrie, took 1-1 from five overs, four of them maidens. They kept things tight as OBR finished Day 1 five wickets down for 35 in 23 overs.
All-rounder Dane Thompson and off-spinner Daniel Stewart, batting at Nos 5 and 7, were in the middle on 1 and 3 respectively at play's end.
Greeks said OBR were outstanding with the ball and in the field, but whether Thompson and Stewart can lead the rebuild from 1pm next Saturday is now key. HSOB are well placed, but the OBR captain still believes first innings points are attainable.
Boys' High needed to show some batting mettle and finally they have.
Skipper Alex Shanks made his highest score — 71 — in his third year as a premier grade cricketer and his first 11 posted 214-8 in the maximum 60 overs, Shanks having won the toss and chosen to bat against Horouta Te Waka.
Until now, some of the school side's senior players have shown poor mentality, shot-selection and application in their batting. On Saturday, they lost opener Jarrod Ormiston and first-drop Kelan Bryant at 23 and 25 before left-hander Ormiston's partner Dylan Torrie (38) and Shanks put on 54 before the lunch-break.
Shanks and sixth-man-in Bekko Page (51) later put on 90 together and Boys' High were 187-5 at the latter's departure.
Boys' High lost their next three wickets for an additional six, 10 and six runs but for the last four batsmen, all younger players, to push Boys' High beyond the 200-run mark was significant.
Shanks was solid from start to finish. Torrie and Page were in fine touch by the end of their time at the crease, Page's first half-century for the side full of sharp running between wickets. Torrie worked hard at the crease, hitting the ball with hammer blows.
But Horouta had their successes as well. Jagroop Singh and his flurrying action produced 4-43 from 10 overs, and he took the prize wickets of both Page and Shanks.
Leg-spinner Vinay Patel, in terms of shape, loop and line, bowled what must have been his best spell at premier grade level to take 2-51 in 11 overs. On another day, that performance might have claimed five wickets.
The sixth of seven bowlers used, he turned the ball well on occasion, with good bounce to boot.
Horouta skipper David Situ felt that Patel and Jagroop Singh bowled well but that as a bowling unit, Horouta weren't consistent for long enough to build pressure on the Boys' High batsmen. He also felt that Te Waka's fielding was, at times, not up to par
In response, with 215 the target for first-innings points, Te Waka's opening pair of Harmanpreet Singh and Situ reached 32 before first-change bowler Page (1-11 from three overs) had Singh caught at the wicket by Ormiston.
Second-change paceman Akira Makiri (1-1 from two overs, the only wide bowled in the match to date) had Situ caught by Zyden Worsnop at mid-on before the Boys' High spinners took the last two wickets to fall.
Orthodox slow left-armer Riker Rolls, bowling around the wicket, took 1-1 from one over. He bowled first-drop Ben Brick (5) with his second ball.
Leg-spinner Dylan Foster bowled Tushar Ballat (3) with the third ball of his first over to see Horouta 41-4 in 14.3 overs when time was called.
Shanks was a happy camper: “To get four wickets at the end of the day was outstanding and the effort in the field from everyone — especially the younger boys, such as Riker Rolls and Keanu Makiri — was just amazing, as was our effort with the bat. That put us in the frame of mind to bowl and field well.”
Seven wickets fell to the spinners in the two premier games on Saturday, and a further 11 to spin in the Hope Cup.
Premier grade, DJ Barry Cup two-day championship, Round 2, Day 1 —
Bollywood High School Old Boys 131 (D Salmon 47, C Shaw 34, B Mackay 26; J Holden 6-20, N Greeks 2-20) Coastal Concrete Old Boys Rugby 35-5 (J Adams 18; C Shaw 3-7). HSOB lead by 96 runs.
Galaxy World Gisborne Boys' High School 214-8 declared (A Shanks 71, B Page 51, D Torrie 38; J Singh 4-43, V Patel 2-51) Horouta Te Waka 41-4 (H Gill 15, D Situ 15). GBHS lead by 173 runs.
Senior B Grade, Hope Cup 30-over championship, Round 11 —
Bollywood HSOB Presidents 172-7 (J Phelps 32, O Needham 32 not out, J Chambers 30; J Castles 2-28, M Gibson 2-30, J Jefferd 2-35) beat Civil Project Solutions Ngatapa Green Caps 143 (R Briant 25, W Short 23; T Crosby 4-34, H Bhatti 3-23, A Akshay 2-24).
Campion College 40-1 (T McGuinness 11no) beat GBHS (2) 39 (C Starck 4-5, T McGuinness 3-9, H Swann 2-7).
Horouta Te Waka 138-5 (S Blake 40, M Knight 21, V Singh 20) beat Rawhiti Legal Old Boys Rugby 122 (T Berry 24, C Christophers 18, F La Grange 18; M Knight 2-12).
