A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Competition leaders Rawhiti Legal OBR’s two-run victory over Bollywood Stars High School Old Boys Presidents at Harry Barker Reserve on Saturday maintained their unbeaten streak seven games into the 16-week Hope Cup season.
OBR have the maximum 21 points while HSOB have nine.
Siteworx Horouta (12pts) and Campion College (6pts) also tasted victory at the weekend.
Horouta beat winless Gisborne Boys’ High School second 11 (0pts) by seven wickets. Campion upset defending champions Civil Project Solutions Ngatapa Green Caps (15pts) by four wickets.
They pulled up the stumps, shook hands, got to the boundary and then found that the game wasn’t over, in OBR’s two-run win against HSOB.
At that stage, HSOB were 141-9 one ball into the 30th and final over in pursuit of OBR’s 143 all out.
HSOB had lost three wickets (No.8 Wayne Lanka, four runs; No.9 Mahmood Ghaznavi, golden duck; and No.1 Israel Turner, OBR’s pick as HSOB Man of The Match for his 76) with the score at 141.
No.11 Nick Armour hurried out within the three minutes allowable and went to the non-striker’s end. No.10 Marius Weyers faced the last five balls of the match, and OBR paceman Rongomai Smith (1-24 off five overs) completed a maiden over for victory. Both HSOB tail-enders finished the game not out on nought.
OBR game-day skipper Jannie Jacobs, deputising for Craig Christophers, was awash with relief.
“I’ve never experienced anything like that,” said left-arm seamer Jacobs, who took 2-20 off six.
“We knew, having made the score we did, that the game was High School Old Boys’ to lose. But Peter Stewart took another screamer of a catch for us at slip — his third in two weeks — and that, to get their No.2 and gloveman Ollie Needham (10), was crucial.”
OBR won the toss on the Harry Barker Reserve practice wicket and opted to bat first. They lost both openers, Stewart and David Gray, with the score at 13 and with one ball left in the ninth over, were 34-4 before second-drop Smith (30) and Thom Berry (50 retired) joined forces. Their 57-run stand for the fifth wicket was the biggest partnership of the game — make-or-break stuff.
Smith, one of the most improved club cricketers in the Hope Cup, struck a six and five fours off 46 balls while old hand Berry hit two sixes and four fours. HSOB inswing bowler Lanka returned the best figures of the match, 4-16 off six, as OBR were dismissed in 27 overs.
OBR knew that they had to come up with something special to defend 143.
Berry (2-11 off three, the HSOB nominee as OBR’s man of the match) and Phil Viljoen senior (2-24 off four), keepers both, backed up spearhead Lloyd van Zyl (1-24 off six), first-change left-armer George Reynolds (1-34 off six) and the rest of the all-seam attack with two wickets apiece.
HSOB captain Jeff Chambers said: “We got wickets early and Izzy batted magnificently for us. We came up two runs short in a real nail-biter.”
Campion College were superb and deserved their four-wicket win against Ngatapa.
The Liam Spring-led Campion recorded their second victory of the season and player-coach Mark Naden was delighted.
“Blake Marshall (3-30 off six), Luke Hurlstone (3-36 off six) and Taye McGuinness (2-32 off four) bowled well, with good pace and rhythm.
“Jonty Fenn held a ripsnorter of a catch at first slip off Blake to get Hamish Briant (6). Liam and Hamish Swann saw off the new ball when we batted and Darryl Dunn (88 not out from No.3) did what he does best — hit the ball cleanly, mixing power with touches of class.
Our boys stuck to the game plan and earned that result.”
Ngatapa captain Mike Gibson won the toss, chose to bat and his outfit were bowled out for 179 in 28 overs.
Left-handed opener Richard Briant was their leading run-scorer with 43 when he was adjudged lbw to Year 8 student Connor Starck (1-31 off six).
Will Faulks, coming in at eight, made an excellent unbeaten 40 off 43 balls.
Ngatapa’s 179 in 30 overs was a more than decent score and they looked in the box seat when Ryan West bowled both Campion openers — Spring for three and Swann for three.
But big left-hander and teacher Dunn has always been a match-winner. At first drop, he hit two sixes and 10 boundaries in his 70-ball stay at the wicket.
Naden, in at No.8, wasted neither time nor balls in the process of scoring 39 not out off 33 balls.
West (2-17 off six) and fellow seamer George Whitehead (2-34 off six) were dutiful for the Green Caps but the Dunn/Naden stand yielded 88 runs for the sixth wicket and decided the contest.
Spring spoke of his senior pros’ composure and technique, and named Faulks as Ngatapa’s man of the match for his batting.
Ngatapa understandably chose Dunn as MoM for the college although Gibson was also impressed by Starck’s bowling in the first innings.
A spin bowler doesn’t have to turn the ball hugely to be effective. Clarence Campbell and Mel Knight turn it just enough.
Left-arm orthodox spinner Campbell took 5-10 off six overs — three of those maidens — against Gisborne Boys’ High School second 11 in the Hope Cup bowling performance of Round 7.
The Waka won by seven wickets after GBHS captain Dylan Foster won the toss and chose to bat.
Off-spinner Knight didn’t take a scalp but conceded only four runs in three overs.
Horouta’s spinners were pinpoint accurate and the zippy Grace Levy took 3-5 off 2.4 overs as Boys’ High were dismissed for 66 in 24.4 overs.
Knight also took a superb one-handed catch at slip off Campbell to dismiss No.6 Noah Torrance-Cribb for two.
The GBHS batsmen failed to use their feet to disrupt the spinners’ length. Eight of them were dismissed for three runs or less and only two reached double figures.
First-drop Alex Shanks, with 23 off 29 balls and who hit the first ball he faced down the ground for four, showed real intent to score, having recently been conservative with bat in hand.
Anyone who thought the game had given up all it could, with Knight’s reflex catch and a late in-swinger from James Tapp (1-2 off three) trapping Bekko Page lbw, had more surprises on the way.
Irrepressible Year 9 student Kavindu Withanage dived forward at mid-wicket to catch big-hitting Horouta opener Vishal Singh (25 from 13, including a six and three fours). The catch, off medium-pacer Adam Situ (1-17 off two) was bravely taken because the ball would have hit the fieldsman in the face had he not gone for it with both hands.
Situ and Foster were good in the field.
GBHS first-change in-swing bowler Daniel Watts (2-13 off three) trapped Horouta opener James Craig (11) lbw, plumb in front, and bowled first drop Jaspreet Singh (1).
Horouta won the game on a wide delivery, the first ball of the 10th over.
Boys’ High chose Campbell as their MoM while Horouta went with Shanks. Knight said he looked to be the batsman most capable of “hanging around”.
Foster was candid: “It wasn’t a good game for us. We didn’t make a defendable total, even though Jack (15) got a start and Alex scored fast runs. Dan was our best bowler, Kavindu took an outstanding catch and there isn’t much else to say.”