Two-league move bearing fruit

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Poverty Bay Cricket’s two-league colts initiative bore spectacular fruit at the weekend.

The aim was to give Year 7 to 10 players more games in the form of a 15-over competition on Wednesday afternoons and 30-over matches on Saturday mornings.

In Round 5 of the 30-over league, the Bollywood High School Old Boys Pups’ Dylan Torrie (85 retired), Eastland Broncos No.6 George Gillies (83 retired), Pups No.8 Oliver Egan (37), Bollywood Stars opener Dylan Foster (77), Foster’s opening partner Kelan Bryant (62 retired), Stars No.8 Henry Watson (35 not out), Auto Tyre Eagles first-drop Noah Torrance-Cribb (63), Eagles opener Jarrod Ormiston (35 retired) and Dnature Dragons wicketkeeper and second-drop Alex Shanks (33 retired) all shone with the bat.

The Stars beat the Pups by 19 runs in a high-scoring game.

Pups captain and wicketkeeper-cum-medium-pacer Jack Whitehead-McKay won the toss and opted to bowl.

Bryant and Stars MVP (most valuable player) Foster batted aggressively from the outset but the Pups then lost four wickets for two runs or less before their captain, Liam Barbier (17 from No.7), and Watson steadied the ship.

Whitehead-McKay, Torrie, Rhys Grogan and Lukas Fry were the Pups’ best bowlers as the Stars rattled up 253-6 in 30 overs.

In reply, the Pups reached 234 in 27.3 overs — Egan was the last man to fall for a hard-run 37 off 33 balls. Left-hander Torrie, in at No.4, hammered three sixes and 13 fours off only 47 balls, while opener Whitehead-McKay (27 off 16) and No.6 Fry (22 off 24) also rose to the occasion, batting selflessly.

Leg-spinners Foster (3-45 off six overs) and Barbier, left-arm spinner Riker Rolls, and medium-pacers Matt van Zyl and Bryant all took wickets in defence of a massive total.

The Pups fell 19 runs short of the Stars’ total, but it was an epic chase and many teams might not have got as close.

Pups skipper Barbier said that while batsmen from both teams hit the ball hard, Pups MVP Torrie hit it harder and further than anyone else.

The Dnature Dragons beat the Auto Tyre Eagles by four wickets, after Dragons captain Theo Mackay won the toss and decided to bowl: an inspired choice.

The Eagles were dismissed for 158 in 17.5 overs.

Nathaniel Fearnley took 2-15, and Philburgh Viljoen, Mackay and Bekko Page took a wicket each.

The experience of Eagles MVP Torrance-Cribb and Ormiston’s being left-handed were key in the Eagles innings. Anything on leg stump was dealt with severely.

Fearnley backed up his bowling effort with 28 runs (retired) from No.1. His captain and opening partner Mackay also retired, for 14.

Dragons second-drop Shanks was in incredible form, with 33 — including eight fours — off 10 balls, before retiring.

Ormiston, a strong seamer, took 3-21 off four overs, while opening bowler Wilf Fairbairn also took a wicket.

Gisborne Girls’ High School beat the Eastland Broncos by two wickets, but it wasn’t plain sailing.

Broncos co-captains Sam Briant and George Gillies won the toss.

A knock of 83 retired by Gillies from No.6 was at the heart of the Broncos’ total of 173 all out, and he was the Broncos’ MVP.

Girls’ High captain and No.3 Kayley Knight was her team’s MVP with an unbeaten 58.