OBR and Ngatapa level top

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

If you’re Craig Christophers or Ben Holden, you’re a happy captain.

After six rounds of the 30-over Hope Cup competition in Senior B Grade cricket, Christophers’ Rawhiti Legal OBR and Holden’s Civil Project Solutions Ngatapa Green Caps both have four wins and 13 points a fortnight from the Christmas break.

Jannie Jacobs deputised for Christophers in the 25-run win by OBR against last season’s champions, the Bollywood Stars High School Old Boys Presidents, at the weekend.

Jacobs can attest to his teammates’ ability to chip in. He won the toss and chose to bat on a Harry Barker Reserve pitch with a bit in it for hard-working bowlers

“It was a typical OBR-HSOB battle that went down to the wire,” Jacobs said.

“Our opening batsmen, Peter (Legend) Stewart and (The Hammer) Thom Berry got us off to a good start with 33 and we showcased our depth with a 44-run fourth-wicket stand between Mana Taumaunu and Rongomai Smith to reach 130-7.

“Left-arm opening bowler George Reynolds, our MVP (most valuable player) and the MVP of the Match, took 4-16 in 4.5 overs. His wickets included that of their opener and skipper, Ollie Needham (6 runs), while Rongomai backed up for us with 2-23.

“Their first drop, Isaac Hughes (31), played a brilliant anchor role before he fell to Philburgh Viljoen Jnr (1-18), Anil Kumar made 20 coming in at No.8 but our tight bowling and sharp fielding made 130 defendable.”

Gloveman Needham stated the Presidents’ case.

“I was happy with our much-improved bowling effort, led by our skilful MVP Mike Francis (3-10) and Jason Lines (2-27), both of whom were good for six overs. We gave away fewer extras and made our opposition work harder for their runs than we had in the past few weeks.

“Credit to Mana and Rongomai, whose shot-selection helped ensure that OBR batted for 30 overs after we dismissed their big guns. A target of 131 was chaseable but required a good batting performance. Application and patience will be sought from our batsmen going forward.”

Ngatapa embrace the unorthodox.

And while Rhys Grogan has been superb with the new ball for Campion College this season, he found out on Saturday that just when you thought you’d seen it all in club cricket, you might not have.

On debut for Ngatapa, Phil Matthews took the bull by the horns, charging at tall young Grogan pre-release twice in the Ngatapa innings. Umpire James Raroa — like his fellows Gary Coutts, Jason Trowill and Stewart Patrick standing elsewhere at the reserve — maintained his concentration to judge (among other things) whether the bowled ball had or would have passed above the striker’s waist in his normal batting stance at the crease.

Were that the case, such a delivery would be a no-ball.

Leaving such technical questions aside, the game on Ground 4 was a rollicking duel. Ngatapa’s margin of victory was five wickets, Campion captain Liam Spring having won the toss and elected to bat.

The students reached 114-8. Their MVP, Year 13 student Luke Hurlstone, played a fine knock of 23 off 25 balls in half an hour from second drop, while Grogan — batting at No.5 — put up 20 in 29 minutes.

Luke’s father, Chris Hurlstone, the sixth seamer used by the Green Caps, took 3-13 while George Whitehead took 2-9. Both men bowled four overs.

Hurlstone Snr was the Ngatapa and overall match MVP, although their first-drop Ryan West did top-score in the game with 39 retired and Dylan Torrie, batting at No.2, was good value for 20.

Hurlstone the Younger bowled out, seam-up, with 2-32 and the match ended with Jeremy Castles hitting paceman Connor Starck for four off the second-last ball of the 29th over after Ngatapa got the wobbles with the finish line in sight. From 93-3, they lost ’keeper Cam McNaught, had West retired and lost one more wicket to be 104-5.

Ngatapa captain Ben Holden said: “I thought we were pretty athletic in the field — we had four newbies, including Phil and Richard Searle.”

Horouta showed Gisborne Boys’ High School (2) how to bat time.

More specifically, Mel Knight — captain of The Waka — showed the youngest team in senior club cricket how to bat time. The former Northern Spirit off-spinner made 55 not out from 77 balls faced, batting at No.5 in Horouta’s 95-run win.

Even though Knight’s teammate Aman Kamboj, 70, at second drop and GBHS No.3 Kelan Bryant, 54, both struck more boundaries (Bryant hit the only six), from a game-sense and placement perspective, Knight’s innings was a gem.

Boys’ High co-captain Bekko Page won the toss and chose to bowl first on the practice wicket.

Horouta posted 199-9 with the club cricket performance of Round 6 in the Hope Cup coming from Boys’ High Year 9 medium-pacer Akira Makiri.

He took 6-27 in six overs on a good off-stump line from go to whoa — four of the wickets he took were bowled.

He picked up one of only two leg-before-wicket decisions in the game — Bhushan Dave was late in his attempt to avoid a yorker — and Makiri was both the Boys’ High MVP and MVP of the Match.

Page took 1-24 with the new ball, and left-arm orthodox spinner Riker Rolls took 1-38 through overs 10 to 20.

In the Boys’ High innings, 15-year-old Bryant thumped the aforementioned six plus seven fours in 61 balls. He shared a 41-run partnership with Ben Langford, and with his elder brother Gareth Langford advanced the score from 60-3 to 91-4.

Bryant and opening bat Nathaniel Fearnley (13) were the only Boys’ High batsmen to reach double-figures.

Knight, flighting the ball cleverly, took 3-2 in three overs while Grace Levy took 3-16 in 4.2. Kamboj bowled out for 2-19.

Knight, MVP of The Waka, said: “Aman’s in good batting form, backing up his 75 off 57 last week against HSOB Presidents. When all goes well, run-rate is never a problem for us.

“Having said that, Boys’ High stuck to their task in the field, and Kelan gives them the potential to post a good total.”