A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
None of the five other sides in the Hope Cup would object if OBR overindulged over Christmas, and could only waddle about when club cricket resumes on January 23.
Rawhiti Legal Old Boys Rugby (24 competition points) won their eighth 30-over Senior B match in succession — a top-of-the-table clash against defending champions the Civil Project Solutions Ngatapa Green Caps (15pts) — by six wickets at Harry Barker Reserve at the weekend.
Despite Bollywood High School Old Boys Presidents' 46-run victory over Siteworx Horouta (both teams having 12 points), Horouta are 0.073 ahead of HSOBP on net run rate and are placed third.
The Campion College first 11 have nine points, the Gisborne Boys' High School second 11 (no points) defaulting their match to the college on Saturday.
Umpires Gary Coutts and Marty Bennett oversaw OBR's duel with Ngatapa. Jannie Jacobs, deputising for OBR regular captain Craig Christophers, won the toss and chose to bowl.
Ngatapa second-drop and wicketkeeper Simon Wilson made a watchful 47 from 62 balls, while opener Grant Walsh (27 off 30 balls), skipper Mike Gibson (a run-a-ball 25) batting at No.7 and No.5 Harry White (24 off 30 balls) were the country club's other chief scorers in a total of 166-9.
Wilson and White's 62-run stand for the fourth wicket was their side's biggest partnership, while left-arm first-change paceman Jacobs —with 3-28 off six overs — was OBR's best bowler.
Spearhead Lloyd van Zyl (2-34 off five overs) and second-change seamer Rongomai Smith (2-37 off seven) tested the Ngatapa batsmen with good pace and steep bounce.
Jacobs said: “We started off well, getting Jack Jefferd for a duck nine balls into the game, but then Grant and Simon led their fightback.
“Deevon Gray took a good catch at second slip to get rid of Grant off my bowling — which evened things up again — but Simon was Ngatapa's batting anchor and they put up a respectable total.
“They then put us under pressure by dismissing Nos. 2, 3, and 4 — David Gray for nine, Peter Stewart for four and Rongomai for nought.”
Three balls into the 10th over, OBR were 44-3 after Ngatapa captain and canny seamer Mike Gibson had taken 3-40 in six overs.
No.1 Thom Berry and Jacobs, in at five, shared a match-winning fourth-wicket stand of 120 to advance the competition leaders' score to 164-4 in 23 overs.
Medium-pacer Jefferd (1-11) bowled Jacobs (61 from 39 balls with a six and nine fours) off the last ball of his only over, the 23rd of the innings.
Ngatapa nominated Berry, who clubbed 11 fours in his 76-ball, unbeaten knock of 82, as OBR's man of the match. OBR chose as the opposition MoM Green Caps organiser Chris Hurlstone (who is on the Ngatapa injury list). Hurlstone was master of the post-match barbecue, which was much appreciated by both sides.
Former Australian test skipper Richie Benaud once said that captaincy was 90 percent luck and 10 percent skill.
In the generous spirit of the former, HSOB Presidents captain Jeff Chambers sent his batsmen out to Right Said Fred's 1991 hit single I'm Too Sexy, although the extent to which his side's 46-run victory over Horouta was inspired by that is unknowable.
Horouta skipper Heyan Ranasinghe won the toss and opted to bowl. The Waka restricted the Presidents to 217-6 by virtue of a hat-trick maiden from Hasantha Withanage (3-22 off five overs). Withanage had opener Israel Turner caught behind by 'keeper Rubi Perano for 97, then bowled Nos. 6 and 7 (Kyle Jean-Louis and Inderpreet Singh Bassi) with the second and third balls of the penultimate over to peg HSOBP back.
Before that — having 12 balls in hand, at 205-3 — Presidents rightly thought 230 was a possibility.
Turner, whose 85-ball innings included a six and 11 fours, shared a 97-run opening stand in 16 overs with veteran Glen Udall (55 off 52 balls, 12 boundaries). At that stage, Presidents might have contemplated 250, but for Withanage and The Waka's next best-performed seamer on the day, Piumal Madasanka (1-26 off six overs).
Chambers, who scored his first club century in Round 5 against Gisborne Boys' High School (113 retired, that game producing 544 runs in 60 overs) was the Presidents' third scorer of consequence, with a still-busy and unbeaten 24 at No.5.
Withanage (15 runs) was the last man out in the Horouta run-chase, bowled by seamer Marius Weyers (1-21 in two overs) off the final ball of the match, The Waka reaching 171 off 30 overs.
Kavinda Yasith (45) — third man in — and Perano (38) at second drop, did more than their bit with the bat to put on 83 for the third wicket after Horouta lost opener Greg Taylor for five and his partner Vishal Singh first ball at 8-2, two balls into the second over.
Nick Armour took 4-22 off six overs to hamper Horouta's batting effort. Yegan Lanka (2-22 off five), who took the new ball for the Presidents, also bowled well, while Chambers and 'keeper Ollie Needham held two catches apiece.
Heyan Ranasinghe, standing in for Mel Knight as captain of The Waka, said: “We fought hard with ball and bat but our fielding needs work. It's not so much catching, more ground stops and backing up that needs to improve.”
Umpire James Raroa did a solid job for both teams, Turner being nominated by Horouta as Presidents man of the match and Withanage taking that honour for Horouta.