A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
BOTH premier-grade games ended in draws on Saturday in the first display this season of tactical batting in Gisborne cricket's DJ Barry Cup.
If the team batting second still have batsmen at the wicket at the end of their allocated overs, the match is declared a draw. Both Horouta and Bollywood Stars High School Old Boys achieved that result with two wickets in hand.
The results leave the competition's leaderboard unchanged. After the first round, Gisborne Boys' High School lead the competition as the only team with two wins. OBR and HSOB follow, on one win each, and Horouta have yet to win after three games.
It was an afternoon of strong batting performances, with Galaxy World GBHS scoring 200 all out against Horouta, while Coastal Concrete OBR scored 191-8 against HSOB.
OBR batted first and took control early, with Sam Patterson opening the batting and scoring a half-century. But he didn't get much help at the other end, with Kieran Venema (3), Josh Adams (6) and Joe Loffler (0) all taking time to establish themselves at the crease but unable to score many runs.
OBR looked as if they might collapse after Loffler was out for a golden duck. That set up Israel Turner (3-43) for an unconverted hat-trick opportunity. Still, HSOB couldn't keep up the pressure and weren't able to make regular breakthroughs.
After the loss of Patterson in the 19th over, OBR stabilised through Carl Carmody (32) and then Nick Greeks (52 not out) to post a respectable total of 191 after their 40 overs.
The game was played on the representative ground, which meant a lot of running between the wicket with the ball often stopping short of the long boundaries.
HSOB came out firing with the bat. Scott Tallott hit a quickfire 46 off 29 balls, in an innings that included eight fours and one six, before he was stumped trying to charge the spin of Jonathan Purcell.
The spin bowlers were getting a significant amount of purchase off the wicket, which gave HSOB trouble. Purcell took four wickets from his 10 overs.
After losing Tallott, who had seemingly swung the balance of the game back in their favour, the HSOB batsmen couldn't find the form they needed to attack the OBR total.
Captain Pat Udall was the rock in the middle of the HSOB order, scoring 43 runs from 88 balls as the team transitioned to play for a draw.
The team kept pace with the OBR total, needing only 22 runs from the last three overs, but the decision had been made to play for a draw as they scored three runs, all from extras, in the first two of the last three overs.
OBR captain Nick Greeks said they elected to bat after winning the toss because they thought the ground would slow up.
“We had only nine batters so batting the 40 was crucial to getting the runs we needed, and I was proud of the boys for doing so.
“With limited bowlers, and being short (of players), it was a hard task, but I thought all the bowlers did extremely well. I think everyone who played stepped up in some way or another.”
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He said he thought the end result was “fair” after Udall's performance to “steady the ship when he needed to”.
GBHS batted first in their innings after winning the toss, with several of the Horouta players turning up late they looked to capitalise on an undermanned side. The decision to bat first after winning the toss came back to bite them, as Horouta batted out their innings to earn a draw.
Horouta put GBHS under pressure early, with Luke Fisher (12) the only batsman in the top four of the order to score double-digit runs, before Seb Wilson (28) stabilised their innings.
Horouta's Ryan Nepe kept the schoolboys in check, earning four wickets off his ten overs including taking both wickets of the inform Gray brothers, Te Raimana and David.
Josiah Turner (33) and Graham Sharp (54) both batted diligently for GBHS, pumping up the run rate with strong batting before losing their wickets to handy pieces of bowling from the Horouta attack.
Despite some speed bumps, GBHS had set Horouta 201-to-win in what would be an uphill battle for the team struggling to find batting form.
Horouta started positively through openers Parminder Kulaar (24) and Ben Brick (26), but the team wasn't scoring fast enough to keep pace with an ever-growing required run rate.
Kulaar was the only batsman in the side to earn a strike rate over 100, as the GBHS bowling attack bowled tight line and length that jammed up the Horouta team.
Horouta were looking down the barrel of defeat when they lost Ryan Nepe (2) to be 111/8 with over ten overs of play, but Etienne Botes (34) and Billy Morse's one run off 34 deliveries held back the growing desperation and hunger of the GBHS attack to earn Horouta the draw.
Horouta captain David Situ said his guys did really well to bat out a draw, with the backs against the wall.
“The guys were really happy. It's the first time we've put up some real determination and grit.
“It's very hard to come by the points, with the way we've been playing so to get one point keeps us in the chase.”
Horouta looked to bat positively but were restricted by tight GBHS pressure, Situ said.
“They set fields quite well. . . which slowed down the run rate.”
GBHS coach Mal Trowell said despite not coming away with the win, it was good to see the schoolboys back in the middle and getting “runs on the board”.
It was disappointing not to come away with the win after scoring 200 and leaving the field 50-odd runs ahead of their opponents, he said
“That's the nature of the format. Maybe if you win the toss, it's better to chase, because you decide your fate.
“We could've tried someone else with the ball, but hindsight is 20/20.”