Pirate Hollis eyeing rare feat

BOUNDARY HUNTER: Kevin Hollis Glass Pirates player Tayla Hollis smashed this delivery through point to the boundary on her way to 26 runs against Campion College in last week’s Doleman Cup game. Hollis capped a solid performance with two wickets in her side’s 147-run win. Picture by Paul Rickard

TAYLA Hollis will become only the second female to win a top-flight Poverty Bay men’s club championship title if Pirates beat OBR in the Walker Shield Twenty20 final at Harry Barker Reserve. If successful, Hollis will join Poverty Bay women’s development officer Mel Knight, who has won Doleman Cup and Walker Shield finals with Kevin Hollis Glass Pirates.

Other women have been part of Hope Cup-winning sides but tonight the 16-year-old Hollis gets the chance to enter the record books at the highest club level.

Knight, a Northern Spirit women’s representative teammate of Gisborne Girls’ High School student Hollis, says she has “plenty of potential”.

“Primarily Tayla is a bowler who can bat,” Knight said. “Being only 16, she has work to do on her game, particularly batting, where she probably needs to be a bit more patient. But she’s young and has made the ND under-21 team, as well as making her debut for the Spirit in the women’s domestic competition.”

Hollis has personal best club bowling figures of 5-37 off eight overs against Gisborne Boys’ High (1) this season. She has also featured in valuable batting partnerships although it is her bowling which could be key tonight.

Pirates skipper Mitchell Turner and vice-captain Brad Reynold also have important roles to play against an OBR side who have lost only one game this season. Turner is back to the form that made him one of the district’s best medium-pacers, including recently taking eight wickets for 68 runs off 19 overs for Poverty Bay against Counties Manukau and scoring 22 not out in the Bay’s second innings. Reynolds steered Pirates into the final with an unbeaten 45 against HSOB.

Man for man, Bain Construction OBR look to have the strongest team in the competition, with Craig Christophers, Kieran Venema. Jimmy Holden and Ian Loffler standing out. Holden, who is probably in the best bowling form of his career, Timoti Weir, Christophers, Matt Cook, Arun Kurup and Jonathan Purcell are a formidable attack. Loffler said the strengths of the team were their depth and spirit.

“Matt Henwood and Josh Adams have been making valuable contributions at important times,” Loffler said. “Both are solid batters and good in the field. They give a good balance to our batting line-up. We’re expecting a tough game. Pirates have a strong side when they get their top team out — plenty of experience with some young players coming through.”

The final starts at 5.30pm.