Today will be a big one at the Harry Barker Reserve.
On turf pitches baked in 27-degree heat, the showpiece of Poverty Bay club cricket — the DJ Barry Cup two-day Premier Grade championship — will start at 11am. David Situ’s Breakers Horouta Te Waka will play the Jarrod Ormiston/DavidGray-led Gisborne Boys’ High School on the representative wicket, and Coastal Concrete Old Boys Rugby under Nick Greeks will play Dave Castle’s Bollywood High School Old Boys on No.2.
Jason Trowill will umpire Horouta versus GBHS, and Stu Patrick, OBR versus HSOB.
In Round 9 of the Senior B Grade 30-over competition for the Hope Cup, starting at 2pm, Jett Whitaker and Hamish Swann will lead Gisborne Boys’ High (2) and Campion College respectively in the college derby on No.3.
Chicking HSOB Presidents, with Matt Jefferd at the helm, will play Rawhiti Legal OBR, led by Mana Taumaunu and Lloyd van Zyl, on No.4.
Meanwhile, the tactical battle of wits between Breakers Horouta Te Waka gloveman and skipper Riley Horsfield and Civil Project Solutions Ngatapa Green Caps’ Charles Morrison on No.1 should also be fascinating.