In the Senior B Grade, Horouta batted Hope Cup champions the Bollywood Stars HSOB Presidents out of their clash by eight wickets, while Rawhiti Legal OBR weathered the storm against giant-killing Campion College. Craig Christophers' OBR denied Campion a second top-shelf scalp in as many weeks by three wickets.
Civil Project Solutions Ngatapa all-rounder Ryan West was in fine form against Gisborne Boys' High School (2). He carried his bat for 56. The Green Caps won by 10 wickets.
Returning to the Premier Grade . . . the Carl Shaw-led HSOB lead the Doleman Cup competition with 11 points, OBR have 10, Horouta five and GBHS one.
Shaw won the toss, chose to bat and the blue-and-whites put up 214-8 in 40 completed overs.
HSOB lost tall left-hander Shaw with the score at 11 and his opening partner Baxter Mackay at 42. Then Tallott and Castle came together with one ball remaining in the 13th over. They advanced the team total to 163 before leg-spinner Karanbir Singh (5-50 off eight overs) had umpire Stewart Patrick adjudge Tallott out, leg before wicket, off the first ball of the 31st over.
“I middled an on-drive and a cover drive — I was happy with those,” Tallott said.
“I had to work for it, run hard for my runs against a Horouta team who bowled well.”
Horouta captain David Situ was pleased with the performance of Singh and Shubham Ralham and Bruno Judd with the new ball. The green-and-yellow bowlers got through 20.1 overs before conceding their first run from a wide.
Such was the quality of first-drop Situ's off-side play with the bat in the second innings that Bay men's assistant coach Ryan Majstrovic, in HSOB colours, thought that the Horouta skipper might be in the process of taking the game away from them. Situ played a typically gutsy hand for 49 off 59 balls at first drop before he was stumped by former Northern Districts and Auckland rep Cody Andrews, courtesy of the cunning Castle's mixture of leg-spin and changes of pace.
Castle took 4-9 in 2.3 overs and seamer Marshall Norris, a seamer always capable of producing the unplayable ball, took 3-29 from four overs as The Waka were dismissed for 104 in 20.3 overs. Aekamajot Singh, who had earlier bowled the first of only two wides in the first dig, made Horouta's next-best individual score of nine, batting at No.4.
Situ confessed to feeling that his crew could have batted better and for more than 20.3 overs while Shaw also felt that his outfit had work-ons.
“It was nice to see some runs from Scott and Dave and it'd be great to see scores like 70 and 69 converted into centuries later in the season,” Shaw said.
“We've got a bit more to work on with our bowling, though. We need to take a page from Horouta's book and be more accurate. I was happy that the boys took their chances when those came along. We have things to tighten up and improve on as the season progresses.”
Talented cricketers now back in the game bore great fruit at the weekend.
James Bristow's whipping half-pull, wide of Travis O'Rourke at mid-on for four — off the bowling of Boys' High captain Nathan Trowell — ended the contest between OBR and Gisborne Boys' High on the No.1 ground. Bristow (12 not out) hasn't played cricket since he played for GBHS in the old Senior C Grade a decade ago, but his 21-run stand with leftie Josh Harris (7no) was one that will be seared into the hearts and minds of their opponents.
OBR brought up their one-wicket win off the first ball of the 37th over, to end a real fight with the Malcolm Trowell-coached GBHS. Trowell junior won the toss on a good hard deck and opted to bat first.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Trowell senior top-scored with 40 from No.7, and former captain Daniel Stewart stepped up to make 30 off 51 balls in just under an hour batting at eight. Stewart and his coach shared in a partnership of 69 for the seventh wicket but both fell with the score at 129, after the current skipper had made a classy 20 before falling to Matthew Cook.
The old OBM, OBR, Bay firm of Cook (3-25 from five overs) and Jimmy Holden (4-18 off seven) received great support from Holden's new-ball partner Paul Stewart (2-27 off seven) and the menacing Dane Thompson.
Boys' High were all out for 145 in 38 overs. Stewart mopped up the tail with consecutive balls, disturbing the furniture of Daniel Watts (8) and Matthew Foster — one of only two Year 13 students in the side.
Stewart will start next week's game against HSOB on a hat-trick.
Thompson didn't take a wicket but he, as always, got the ball to lift.
OBR skipper Nick Greeks liked what he saw.
“It was great to have Dane back — he hit the deck hard, bowled a great line and length — and it was a good toss to lose in the end because the pitch offered a bit to our opening bowlers,” Greeks said.
“Jim knocked off the top order, and Cookie was tidy and bowled a good wicket-to-wicket spell. Dane (29 from No.4) and Josh Adams (30 at first drop) batted well and got the innings moving forward. It was great to see James Bristow and Josh Harris put the bad ball away in an exciting end to a low-scoring game.
“I was proud of our boys and how they went about getting the job done.”
In the OBR innings, Nathan Trowell took 2-15 off 5.1 overs and off-spinner Stewart took 2-18 off seven, but Luke Fisher — the eighth and last bowler used — more than once came within millimetres of match-winner status with 2-9 from four overs.
Trowell junior knows his team competed hard. He knows he leads a unit who can beat each of the three other Premier Grade teams on their day.
“Wow what a game,” the second-year skipper said.
“There are so many positives to take out of that performance — Dad, Dan Stewart and I batted well, Cohen Loffler (1-28 off eight) bowled really well, Fisher changed the game by getting Nick (18 at No.5) and Ian Loffler (12, at No.6) out in the same over.
“Playing in the Doleman Cup is a great challenge — it's tough but it's exciting to play good, hard, competitive cricket.”
