A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Ngatapa are now top of the heap.
The Grant Walsh-led Civil Project Solutions Ngatapa Green Caps beat previously unbeaten Senior B Grade club cricket competition leaders Rawhiti Legal OBR by one wicket in the top-of-the-table clash at Harry Barker Reserve on Saturday.
The Caps won the Round 8 fixture and the coveted Challenge Cup in the teams' first meeting since the season began on October 30.
Ngatapa now lead the competition with 19 points, followed by last year's beaten finalists OBR (16), Horouta Te Waka (12), Campion College (6), defending champions the Bollywood Stars High School Old Boys Presidents (4) and Gisborne Boys' High School 2 (1).
Aside from the green-and-whites' one-wicket win against OBR on HBR 1, Presidents tasted victory for the first time this season. They beat GBHS (2) by 56 runs.
Winless Boys' High, coming off their closest game of 2021-22 (a four-run loss to Campion), posted their largest total of the season to date — 121-4 — against HSOB on HBR 4.
It was only the second time that the youngest team in senior cricket hade made 100-plus as a team this season, and it was the first time that GBHS had batted for their full complement of 30 overs.
Te Waka beat Campion by seven wickets to retain the prized Naden-Taylor Trophy on HBR 3. That game was Year 13 student and first 11 captain Liam Spring's last for the college.
Spring said: “My best memory — as a player for Campion — will be that of the commitment of our coach, Mark Naden, to our cricket and getting to play alongside him.”
The outgoing skipper won the toss and elected to bat. Campion were all out for 62 (the same team total that they made against OBR three weeks ago) in 25.4 overs.
Long-serving Horouta left-arm orthodox spinner Clarence Campbell (1-5 in four overs) bowled Spring's opening partner and successor as captain, Hamish Swann, for a royal duck. Swann made an excellent 29 against GBHS at the top of the order the previous weekend and his loss was a heavy blow to the college's chances of victory in Round 8.
Campion are a much better batting side than 62 all out. Until OBR left-armer George Reynolds took 6-21 (including a hat-trick) against Ngatapa, the college had in Rhys Grogan the grade's leading wicket-taker. They now enter a rebuilding phase but have the young talent and a wise head in coach Naden to play good cricket as they go.
Grogan's new-ball partner, Connor Starck, scored 2 batting at No.3 and took 1-10 in the Horouta innings to be Campion's MVP (most valuable player).
Spring led Campion's run-scorers with 15 from No.2.
Horouta, fourth-change seamer Billy Morse took 4-14 in 3.4 overs and James Craig, the third bowler up, 2-10 from four overs.
Left-handed Horouta opener Mike Tapp (15) and his captain, second-drop Mel Knight (14), were unbeaten in the middle at game's end as Te Waka took a boundary from the first ball of the 23rd over — off-spinner Spring's third — to win the game.
Knight, an offie herself, later said: “We executed our game-plan; our bowling plans worked brilliantly. Everyone bowled well. Our MVP — and the overall MVP of the match — Billy, was lethal.
“The run-chase started OK, but unfortunately our big hitters didn't quite get going, so we then had to tick the runs off in a circumspect manner.
“It is important to us to hold on to the Naden-Taylor trophy representing two awesome cricket families from our clubs — in memory of Vaughn Thompson — so we're happy we could put that back on the shelf until next we meet.”
HSOB Presidents have been of good cheer for the seven weeks preceding their first win in defence of the Senior B Grade crown.
The holders of the Hope Cup won the toss, took first knock and lost openers Isaac Hughes and Nathaniel Fearnley to be 6-2 four balls into the third over. Captain and first drop Ollie Needham (25) and No.4 Jeff Chambers (38) then put on 100 runs for the third wicket in the blue-and-whites' best partnership of the season to this point.
These two experienced cricketers were businesslike, alert to a quick single and in the 12th over pinched three consecutive singles towards mid-wicket and mid-on. It was smart cricket and enjoyable to watch — a cultured alternative to batting of the rough-and-ready type.
GBHS under Bekko Page stuck to their task with the ball and in the field: twins Keanu (2-14) and Akira (2-21) Makiri, along with Gisborne Boys' MVP left-armer Lukas Fry (2-27), were the most successful bowlers. For the second week in a row, Page managed the tricky balance of giving 10 players an opportunity with the ball in the hunt for 10 wickets.
A major factor in the result was that GBHS bowled 51 wides. Minus those sundries, the suggestion is that the Presidents' margin of victory would have been only five runs but no one can know.
HSOB reached 177-8 and Page was Boys' High's leading run-scorer in pursuit with an unbeaten 29 from No.4 after burly left-hander Jarrod Ormiston and Gareth Langford had made Boys' High's best opening stand of the season so far — 46 — before Langford fell to Mike Francis. As with the three best of the GBHS seamers, the veteran Francis (1-23) was up to the bat — which is crucial against a dangerous striker with the good “eye”, the steel wrists and stand-and-deliver style of Langford.
Ormiston was out two balls later with the score still at 46 before Page and No.3 Kelan Bryant put on 31 for the third wicket.
While greater match-awareness will serve the young team better in the future, the acquisition of that will require them to watch every ball of each innings, sense momentum shifts and read the game. They must become eagle-eyed and attentive students of the game.
Needham said: “Jeff and I had to work hard to build a platform, ensure we batted for 30 overs. We managed to do that, which allowed our numbers 5 to 10 to play with greater freedom in posting a good total of 177.
“As a unit, Boys' High bowled well but conceded 51 wides. Later they were patient with the bat, though the ball swung and seamed for most of their innings, making it hard for the batsmen to up the tempo when they needed to. With more confidence, they'll put the bowlers and fieldsmen under more pressure earlier to push for that win.”
Anil Kumar made 16 batting at No.8 and bowled out with 1-19 to be the Presidents' MVP.
Ngatapa have reason to be as pleased as punch.
As seasoned campaigners, they understand the significance — for teams at the top end of the competition — of rising to the occasion against strong opposition.
And the Green Caps rose to the occasion against OBR on Saturday.
Both teams went into the big game unbeaten, their Round 2 clash having been cancelled. Ngatapa skipper Walsh and OBR captain Thom Berry came to a gentleman's agreement to dispense with the toss: OBR batted first.
That they reached 157-9 is due in enormous part to a superb innings of 59 runs from 63 balls — including seven boundaries — by No.6 Lloyd van Zyl. Van Zyl, by trade an opening bowler, and second drop Amit Vyas (26) shared a 111-run stand for the fifth wicket, advancing the score from 18-4 after five overs to 119-5 in 21.5 overs.
OBR showed resilience and resourcefulness.
Green Caps MVP paceman Ryan West (4-10 from four overs) took the first four wickets to fall in the first innings and off-spinner Walsh bowled out to finish with 3-28: the big scalps of Vyas, Van Zyl and dangerous hitter Rongomai Smith.
In the second innings, but for second drop Walsh's 66 off 60 and No.3 West's 48 from 57, Ngatapa wouldn't have made it home. The Caps won by one wicket; George Reynolds' 6-21 for OBR was the second-best bowling performance of the season, after OBR all-rounder Craig Christophers' 6-16 against GBHS (2), and in front of the 6-27 of Akira Makiri for GBHS (2) against Horouta.
Walsh said: “Lloyd and Amit batted brilliantly to get OBR to a decent score while our guys bowled and fielded really well in the heat.
“We got off to a difficult start but were able to steady the ship and close in on their 157. Then George changed the game with a hat-trick.
“We just got over the line — Cam McNaught hit the winning runs, for two, off Lloyd with three balls to spare. We were 159-9 in 29.3 overs.
“That was as good a top-of-the-table league match as you'll get and we're happy to go to the break at the top of the table as holders of the Challenge Cup.”
Reynolds was both the OBR and overall match MVP.
James Raroa, Martin Bennett and Gary Coutts are among Poverty Bay Cricket's biggest fans.
They serve the game as umpires.
James reported that Campion and Horouta “played the game in the best spirit but on the field, it was business as usual”.
Marty did a fine job for both GBHS and HSOB Presidents. When asked what he'd enjoyed most about the match in which he stood, he spoke of “the shot-selection of the Boys' High batsmen”.
Gary Coutts was the umpire for OBR and Ngatapa. He said: “I do the job, they play the game, and that's what it's all about.”