Nine-a-side colts league under way today

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

Nelson Park is the crucible and at 4.30pm today the Junior T15 Colts League will bring keen Year 7-8 cricketers together in Round 1 of the six-week, nine-a-side competition.

This afternoon the OBR Sharks take on the Bollywood Stars on ground No.5, the HSOB Pups face the DNature Dragons on No.4 and the Tairawhiti Women’s Cricket Club go at it vs the Ngatapa Knights on No.3.

“I expect to see some excited cricketers,” said Poverty Bay cricket operations manager Nick Hendrie.

“These players have been training hard for a month — it will be good to see them out on the park.”

Last season the grade included Y9-10 players before Christmas. It is now almost exclusively an intermediate league, and many of the young cricketers who shone in 2018-19 are raring to go.

Hamish Swan’s strike-rate of over 100 speaks to his being a busy cricketer. Along with capable all-rounder Rhys Grogan (SR138 with the bat, av 11 with the ball), seamers Nathaniel Fearnley and Taye McGuinness, and hard-hitting left-hander Jarrod Ormiston, they are all big wheels in the HSOB Pups.

Opposing the Pups will be a DNature Dragons crew which includes Alex Shanks, who averaged 40-plus with the bat last season, and a consistent, lively pace bowler in Bekko Page.

The Tairawhiti WCC have in their line-up Kayley Knight, whose experience stands them in good stead, and a pace attack which includes Maddie Ashworth. Ashworth bowls an excellent outswinger — something Ngatapa Knights batsmen such as George Gillies and Dylan Torrie had better watch out for. Both hit the ball well and the Knights too have a good bowling line-up: Jonothan Gray is a deceptive left-armer.

The OBR Sharks also have a promising leftie in Jack Holden, and batsmen such as Ben Langford and Dylan O’Rourke who have it in them to make runs. The Sharks have drawn a strong Bollywood Stars team in Round 1 — David and Marcus Gray are solid performers, Kelan Bryant has come on in leaps and bounds in the past two years, and Arlo Willis is a young paceman to watch — with a day/night atmosphere at Nelson Park to set the scene.

Saturday morning T30 draw, November 2, 8.30am at Nelson Park —

Bollywood Stars v Ngatapa Knights, NP No.3; Pups v DNature Dragons, NP No.4; TWCC v OBR Sharks, NP No.5.

Teams —Bollywood Stars: Kelan Bryant, Riker Rolls, Connor Starck, Manjot Singh, David Gray, Marcus Gray, Anikate Bandral, Matthew van Zyl, Beau Wilson, Arlo Willis, Angus Clarke, Vincent Patrick-Page.

OBR Sharks: Ben Langford, Dylan O’Rourke, Taylor Scott, Kyran Lasenby, Rylan Crosby-Wright, Braden Sycamore, Deshaun McLaughlin, Jack Holden, Tama Wirepa, Che Gibson-Park, Joel Kirkpatrick, Dylan Worsnop.

HSOB Pups: Jarrod Ormiston, Ollie Egan, Taye McGuinness, Rhys Grogan, Gagandeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Hamish Swan, Nathaniel Fearnley, Muzammil Khan, John Broad, Malsha Mahabalage, Daniel Bailey.

DNature Dragons: Theo McKay, Jett Whitaker, Akira Makiri, Teremoana Cummings, Keanu Makiri, Logan Brown, Bekko Page, Izan Duckworth, Alex Shanks, Jakeb Brown, Ari Robertson, Puati John Cuthers-Wyllie.

TWCC: Kayley Knight, Maddie Ashworth, Grace Kuil, Amy Thomas, Alessandra Evans, Savannah McGhee, Tegan Hayward, Grace Levy, Mandy Pardoe, Jessica Hayward, Alyssah Swan.

Ngatapa Knights: George Gillies, Dylan Torrie, Alexander Burgess, Jonothan Gray, Marcus Bull, Charlie Worsnop, Jack Searle, Tom Rouse, Aiden Armstrong, Fergus Tomlinson, Jacob Douglas, Jonah Reynolds.