A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
High School Old Boys Presidents are starting to get it together.
The defending champions of Poverty Bay Senior B Grade 30-over club cricket and holders of the Hope Cup beat Mark Naden's Campion College by 94 runs on Saturday.
Leg-spinning all-rounder Jarrod Renouf scored his maiden century off only 61 balls — he hit five sixes and 11 fours — from No.1 before he was caught and bowled by Campion captain Hamish Swann off the last ball before the drinks break for 101.
The Bollywood HSOB Presidents (10 competition points) still trail the Civil Project Solutions Ngatapa Green Caps (25pts), Rawhiti Legal OBR (19) and Horouta Te Waka (15). Behind them are Campion (6pts) and the Gisborne Boys' High School second 11 (1pt).
Presidents skipper and wicketkeeper Ollie Needham won the toss on Nelson Park artificial pitch No.3 and chose to bat. He shared a 136-run opening stand with Renouf.
Needham retired on 28. Both second-drop Jeff Chambers and No.7 Jason Lines made 22 in Presidents' total of 212-9 in 29.1 overs. Unusually, in a limited-overs match, HSOB declared their innings closed with five balls remaining; hence Campion spearhead Connor Starck's figures of 2-25 off 5.1 overs.
Aiden Armstrong (2-19 off 3 overs) and Joe Singh (2-31) were the college's seventh and sixth options, while Starck's new-ball partner Taye McGuinness and first-change Swann both bowled out, conceding 52 and 50 respectively, in Campion's all-medium-pace attack.
Coach Naden said: “Jarrod Renouf made us pay for dropped chances and Ollie retired, but we bowled the rest of them out for 76 in 14.1 overs, in 31-degree heat. Catches win matches and if we'd held just one to stop Jarrod's hard-hit ton, we would've been well in the hunt. The footwork of our batsmen showed huge improvement from our last game, against Ngatapa, in which we were bowled out for 39 in 22.2 overs.”
Swann led by example in the run-chase, punishing the bad delivery with eight boundaries in his 47 from 61 balls at No.1. David Milne struck six fours in 28 balls for 31, having come in at No.6. It was his first game of cricket since he turned out in Eastern Suburbs' win against Onslow in Wellington premier grade play in 2006.
Milne was the last man to fall, Campion reaching 118-5 in 30 overs.
As HSOB opening bat and wicketkeeper, Ollie Needham had the best seat in the house for three-quarters of the match: “Campion batted with patience and, at times, aggression, as with Connor's superb pull-shot off the best bowler of the day, Jason Lines (1-12 off six overs), and a lovely late-cut from Hamish off Mike Francis in his excellent, composed innings of 47.
“After a long break from the game, David Milne showed that class is permanent, with excellent footwork in his busy cameo.
“The young Campion team hung in and pegged us back after the first drinks break, when it looked as if 250-plus was on the cards.”
Renouf and Swann were, according to CricHQ, their sides' MVPs (most valuable players).
Swann said: “We were happy to welcome Charlie Whitfield into our first 11. He had a great game, saved a lot of runs on the boundary and just has a great attitude.”
Ngatapa deserve more credit than they'd ever take.
The competition leaders beat Horouta Te Waka by five wickets on Nelson Park 2 through the quality of at least three strong contributors in each innings.
Horouta captain Mel Knight won the toss and elected to bat and, although her crew made a fair fist of things (165-7 in 30 overs), three solid seamers came to the party for the Green Caps.
Zac Borrie (3-48) and fellow opening bowler Ryan West (1-4) both bowled out, while their captain and first-change Mike Gibson took 2-43 in five overs.
Special mention must be made of West. To concede only four runs in six overs — four of those being maidens — is an effort worthy of the local premier grade's best pacemen.
Ngatapa won the teams' first meeting this season by seven wickets, having bowled out Horouta for 124 in 24.1 overs on Harry Barker Reserve's tiny practice-wicket boundaries.
As No.1 Grant Walsh (33), first-drop Borrie (32) and Gibson (20 not out) at No.5 had stepped up for the Caps with the bat in Round 4, so the right-hand/left-hand opening pair of Charles Morrison (68no) and Richard Briant (26), and Walsh (24 at No.4), made hay on this occasion.
Right-arm and left-arm finger-spinners Knight (2-33 off 5.4 overs) and Clarence Campbell (2-37 off five) were The Waka's best with the ball and Horouta played enterprising cricket.
Aman Kamboj just pipped Morrison as the CricHQ MVP of the match. Second-drop Kamboj hit three sixes and five fours in his 61 runs from 54 balls in 66 minutes at the crease.
Te Waka No.2 Vishal Singh (38 off 31 balls with two sixes and four fours in 49 minutes) set an aggressive batting tone for the Horouta innings.
First-drop Kayley Knight (23 off 60 in 79 minutes) featured in partnerships of note (27 and 62) with Horouta's two big hitters, Singh and Kamboj.
Mel Knight said: “It was important to us to see West off with only one wicket. He was the only pace bowler on the day to find the right length — he was really accurate.
“Vishal's 38 was his best knock for us this season. He showed patience in not trying to go after West and instead profited from the other bowlers. I wouldn't have wanted to get in the way of some of the shots he hit — he smoked them.”
Mike Gibson paid tribute to Morrison for carrying his bat in the Ngatapa innings and said his team had put up “a great team performance in a great game of cricket”.
George Gillies is becoming a cricketer of note.
And while the Gisborne Boys' High School second 11 captain couldn't stave off defeat against Craig Christophers' OBR at the weekend, he made everyone sit up and take notice from the start.
Having won the toss and chosen to bat, Gillies faced the first over from Rawhiti Legal OBR spearhead Lloyd van Zyl and hit boundaries off the second, fifth and sixth balls of the innings. After one over, the youngest team in senior club cricket were 12-0, then 17-0 two overs in.
Having scored 15 runs, Gillies fell to a great catch at point by Amit Vyas off the bowling of Van Zyl, from the first ball of the third over. The scoring rate then decreased markedly.
Gillies's opening partner, Dylan Torrie, got to 22, and No.5 Lukas Fry top-scored with 26, his highest score to date in club cricket. Fry looks capable of bigger totals. He hit the ball crisply and his innings included four fours.
Second-drop Nathaniel Fearnley also showed promise as he scored 15 runs.
The time is right for the likes of Gillies, Torrie, Fearnley and Fry to kick on. They can, and they should.
GBHS were 118-8 after 30 overs, Van Zyl and Vyas bowling out to take 4-31 and 2-21 respectively.
George Reynolds took 2-15 off five overs. He is always up to the bat, and second-change Johnathan Gray, with his tight line from over the wicket, bowled as well as anyone — he conceded only eight runs in six overs.
OBR wicketkeeper Thom Berry played a match-winning hand with 58 off 41 balls from No.2. He hit two sixes and nine fours in his 70 minutes at the crease. Left-handed first-drop Tim Scrimshaw (19 off 23 in 33 minutes) likewise pushed the score along in a positive manner.
The second-wicket stand between Berry and Scrimshaw was broken when Riker Rolls, fielding at mid-off, went sideways, gathered the ball off Scrimshaw's straight drive from the off-spin bowling of Gillies and — with a remarkable pick-up and throw — hit the stumps direct to run out Scrimshaw at the non-striker's end.
OBR's Van Zyl, Berry and Reynolds beat Gisborne Boys' High School's Fry in the MVP stakes.
Gillies said: “That by Riker was a very good piece of fielding.
“With the bat, we made a good start. Dylan stayed in for a while and built a partnership with Lukas, who made much-needed runs, but OBR bowled and fielded well.
“They were just the better team.”