Winning start to season for OBR

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

OBR would be happy with the start they made on Saturday.

The team that won 14 of 17 30-over games in 2020-2021 (fell to the Ngatapa Green Caps and lost to High School Old Boys by 25 runs in last season's Senior B Grade club cricket final) began their Saturday summer campaign with a 53-run win against HSOB.

Rawhiti Legal OBR captain Craig Christophers won the toss and batted first on the Nelson Park artificial pitch.

Christophers' outfit posted 243-3 in 30 completed overs with he and his fellow all-rounder Jannie Jacobs in fine batting form. First-drop Jacobs (126) and Christophers (58 from No.1) both retired-out, the skipper and Jacobs sharing a 191-run stand for the second wicket.

It was by far the largest partnership in senior club cricket at the weekend, and seamer Mahmood Khan, the eighth bowler used, was the most successful by a fair stretch with 2-10-3.

In response, Bollywood High School Old Boys under Ollie Needham reached 190-9, Nic Armour performing a feat rarely seen at any level of the game, scoring 52 not out from No.11 in the order.

Armour hit nine boundaries — including four sixes — off 25 balls in 19 minutes at the crease. He and No.10 Kyle Jean-Louis (4 from 17 in his 23-minute stay) put up 56 as a pair and took 21 runs from wily leg-spinner Mana Taumaunu's third over, the second-to-last over of the match.

Unknown quantity Tejas Vyas took 3-27 off four overs, young tearaway Philburgh Viljoen Jr's 2-22-4 and Lloyd van Zyl's 2-37-6 made life difficult for the HSOB top order. As always, Christophers and senior players' management of their bowlers, to good field settings, was very good.

Keeper-skipper Needham was clear: “Craig and Jannie batted us out of the game — Jannie was on fire, bombing six after six downwind over Cow Corner. We also dropped four catches, so the damage was done.

“In the second innings, their bowlers all hit good areas and made us work hard for our runs. Nic entertained us with his maiden half-century and gave a bit of respectability to the scoreboard.

“The game was played in a good spirit as always, but we hope to improve and be more competitive in our next outing.”

Campion College versus the Green Caps was absorbing.

Campion captain Liam Spring won the toss, choosing to bat. He then led by example, with 69 from No.1. Year 9 student Connor Starck went at better than a run a ball (16 from 14), at No.8. Civil Project Solutions Ngatapa Green Caps first-change medium-pacer Ben Holden took 3-29 off five overs, with the all-student Campion side batting to term: 137-8.

Ngatapa had lost four wickets when they passed the target score in 23 overs. All-rounder Ryan West struck three sixes and eight fours in the course of an hour, for his 65 not-out from 40 balls, batting at No.5.

Year 10 seamers Rhys Grogan (2-28-6) and Hamish Swann (2-47-5) were the most successful of Campion's all-medium-pace attack, but all five of the bowlers used were steady. It is most unusual, for such a young line-up to concede only six wides in the 23 overs it took Ngatapa to run Campion's mid-range first innings total down.

Campion coach Mark Naden said: “Our boys made a great team-effort and there were some real father-and-son battles — Connor even hit his father Aidan for six!”

In modern cricket, even top bowlers need to make hay while the sun's shining.

And that's exactly what contracted Northern Spirit seamer Kayley Knight did, in an excellent performance against the Gisborne Boys' High School Second 11 on Saturday.

Her mum Mel, an ex-Spirit off-spinner and captain of the Horouta Second 11 in the Senior B Grade, won the toss in Round 1 at Nelson Park and chose to bat first against a youthful Boys' High side. Knight junior hit 11 boundaries in a 44-ball innings of 55 from No.5 before being bowled by Y9 medium-pacer Ben Langford (1-25-3). James Craig (47), in at No.6, and first-drop Knight senior (33) were the other major contributors in The Waka's impressive 225-5.

Game-day captain and paceman Adam Situ (1-37-4), left-arm orthodox spinner Riker Rolls (1-29-5) and leg-spinner Jett Whitaker (1-21) were Gisborne Boys' other wicket-takers and there was a story to each one. From Situ's in-slant to knock Nathan McLoughlin (2) over on the latter's debut, through to Lukas Fry's great outfield catch coming in off the boundary at long on to dismiss hard-hitting opener Vishal Singh (20) and gloveman Kavindu Withanage's great grab — off the back of the bat from an attempted pull-shot — for Whitaker to account for Mel Knight, it was all good cricket.

Only Gareth Langford, batting at No.3, made double-figures for GBHS, counting one six and another boundary in his 15 off 14. The youngsters were bowled out for 60 in 19.5 overs, with bustling Piumal Madasanka (3-4 off five, two maiden overs) and slow leftie Clarence Campbell as the chief destroyers. Campbell's's 3-16-5 produced two stumpings; he has always bowled a tidy line and length for the Waka.

James Raroa (GBHS-Horouta) was one of three cricket-nuts — Marty Bennett (Campion-Ngatapa) and Gary Coutts (HSOB-OBR) being the others — whose service to the game as umpires was much-appreciated at Nelson Park.

And umps can learn on the job.

Raroa said: “You don't have to have played the game to be part of the game. I learned a new rule. If a bowled ball doesn't hit the pitch on the full — meaning it lands on the grass — that's a no-ball: free-hit.”

Horouta 225-5 (Kayley Knight 59, James Craig 47 not out, Mel Knight 33, Vishal Singh 2) beat GBHS (2) 60 (Gareth Langford 15; Piumal Madasanka 3-4, Clarence Campbell 3-16).

Ngatapa 139-6 (Ryan West 65no, Grant Walsh 31, Simon Wilson 22; Rhys Grogan 2-28, Hamish Swann 2-47) beat Campion College 137-8 (Liam Spring 69, Connor Starck 16no; Ben Holden 3-29).

Rawhiti Legal OBR 243-3 (Jannie Jacobs 126no, Craig Christophers 58no; Mahmood Khan 2-10) beat Bollywood HSOB Presidents (190-9 (Nick Armour 52no, Ollie Needham 37, Mahmood Khan 28, Anil Kumar 21; Tejas Vyas 3-27, Philburgh Viljoen Jr 2-22, Lloyd van Zyl 2-37).