A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Victory off the last ball of the final over, with the last man in, against the reigning champions . . . that was High School Old Boys Presidents' weekend in a nutshell.
Bollywood HSOB Presidents lead Senior B cricket's Hope Cup competition but had to pull out all the stops to beat last year's champions, Rawhiti Legal Old Boys Rugby, by one wicket at Harry Barker Reserve on Saturday.
Former Otago Volts player Jason Lines (5) hit a lofted off-drive for the last run required for victory.
Presidents reached 122-9 off the last ball of their 30 overs in reply to the OBR total of 121-6.
OBR skipper Craig Christophers had won the toss for this Round 10 game on HBR 4 and chose to bat.
Christophers opened and made 48 — the highest individual score of the match.
He was not dismissed until the 30th and final over of the innings, when he was caught by wicketkeeper and Presidents skipper Ollie Needham.
In the HSOB innings, No.5 Kyle Jean-Louis scored 21 before Lines brought up the win off the last ball of the game's final over, which was bowled by off-spinner Christophers.
Horouta don't intend to hand the Naden-Taylor Trophy over to Campion College any time soon.
Te Waka played top cricket to beat the Campion first 11 by five wickets on Saturday.
Horouta won the first clash against the college this season by seven wickets on November 26. The Mark Naden-coached first 11 have a third and final bite at the cherry on March 15 — the last weekend before the Hope Cup semifinals.
Horouta skipper Mel Knight and company made the most of their unscheduled outing on a Harry Barker Reserve representative wicket that assisted the bowlers, dismissing Campion for 56 in 24 overs.
Former Northern Spirit off-spinner Knight said that medium-pacer James Craig (4-14 from five overs) got help from the pitch and was rewarded when he hit good areas.
Stanley Blake (2-4 from three overs) bowled seam-up, instead of spin, because the ball was swinging, said Knight, whose daughter Kayley is bowling first-change for the New Zealand under-19 women's team who booked a World Cup semifinal berth in South Africa this week and whose husband Alan held it together at No.3 for Te Waka with 16 not out in the run-chase against Campion.
Mel Knight took 2-4 from four overs, three of which were maidens, disturbing the furniture of both opener Taye McGuinness (10) and Harnoor Sondh (an eight-ball duck).
McGuinness was the only Campion batsman to reach double-figures. His fourth-wicket stand of 14 with Aidan Armstrong (6) was the team's biggest partnership.
Twice — at 21 and 35 — Campion lost two wickets at the same score.
Soon Horouta found themselves in a similar position, having lost openers Greg Taylor and Vishal Singh, both for two, with four runs on the board.
Campion skipper Hamish Swann took 3-16 from three superb overs.
His new-ball partner, college spearhead Rhys Grogan, took 1-6 from four overs.
Grogan and Swann have played well for Campion in the past three years, and in the next two years can look forward to stepping up as seniors with Campion.
Naden said: “We were honoured to play on the rep wicket and Taye showed great patience with the bat.
“Our bowling and fielding were the best of our season so far; Hamish led the way and Rhys, leg-spinner Anikate Bandral and Aidan Armstrong backed him up.
“Big thanks to Wayne Ensor and Matt Naden for helping us out.
“Congratulations to Horouta. They're a cool team to play against. We had lots of laughs, camaraderie and healthy competitiveness.”