This weekend marks start of premier-grade cricket

READY TO GO: Horouta skipper David Situ leads a side strong on team culture and with the talent to make an impact in premier-grade cricket this season. The first games are scheduled for Harry Barker Reserve tomorrow. Picture by Paul Rickard

Another touchstone of summer's approach occurs this weekend with the start of premier-grade cricket.

Four teams return this year and will start the season with the DJ Barry Cup, a 40-over competition.

Tomorrow Gisborne Boys' High School play High School Old Boys, while OBR open their season against Horouta.

GBHS and OBR were the teams to beat last season. They contested all three competition finals. HSOB and Horouta had their moments but ultimately failed to make meaningful inroads on the competition leaderboard.

That makes tomorrow's games intriguing. It's our first glimpse of how the teams will stack up this season.

With no real pre-season to gauge how teams will fare, tomorrow's games will give the first inkling of how the teams will perform in 2021-22.

All teams have playmakers who can turn a game on its head with the ball or the bat. The form of individual players will likely determine results at the business end of the season.

Last year Graham Sharp was on fire in the latter half of the season for Gisborne Boys' High School.

They will not have him this year, as Sharp has indicated he will not play cricket locally, so Boys' High will look to their key players to step up.

Boys' High have played some pre-season openers as a schoolboy team and start the season largely unchanged. They had a young team last year and it was expected that they would develop in the premier grade as a unit before players left school and filtered out to university and local clubs.

HSOB have the makings of an incredible team. Last season it was felt that all they needed to do was put together a string of complete performances to play finals cricket.

This year will be no different. They have some hugely talented players and all they need is one good performance a game from them for HSOB to be nigh on unbeatable this season.

OBR focused on consistency last season. This season they will likely look to start where they left off . . . they won the DJ Barry Cup which, last summer, ended the season.

With big hitters, such as Nick Greeks, and a strong bowling attack, they will be dangerous this year if they find the form that propeolled them to all three finals last year.

Horouta have a strong team culture. After being thrashed by almost everyone at the start of last season, they bounced back and put in some strong challenges after the Christmas break.

With strong bonds and friendships among the players, they will likely continue to improve and will punish anyone taking them lightly.

All the teams have the raw material to win matches and it will be exciting to see how the competition plays out.

Both games start at 1pm. Gisborne Boys' High School play High School Old Boys on Harry Barker Reserve No.2 and OBR play Horouta on the the rep wicket.