Cricket: Batting maestro throws down gauntlet

ON A ROLL: William Clark, 14, of Hastings Christian School is carving up his opposition bowlers in the past week. PHOTO/Paul Taylor

It's fair to say every schoolboy cricketer would like to have whatever William Clark is on.

The 14-year-old has been on a roll in the past few days with his blazing bat at No3 for the Hawke's Bay Under-15 boys' representative team as well as Havelock North High School first XI team during this week's four-day annual Invitational Challenge Cup tournament here.

Clark, who is a guest player for the village school, carved up 110 runs for the Bay rep team against their Wanganui counterparts at Nelson Park, Napier, on Sunday.

The year nine pupil from Hastings Christian School also took five wickets from the two-innings match.

"He doesn't have a team at his school so he plays for Havelock," says father Brad Clark, a Hastings police officer who is an old boy of Havelock North High. He says the main reason he chose the villagers over other schools' invitations was because he is a member of the Havelock North Cricket Club age-group Superleague team so some of the players are good mates.

For Havelock North High this week in the Napier Boys' High School-hosted tourney, Clark scored 130 runs against Tauranga Boys' High on Monday.

The next day the right-hander carved up 71 against Palmerston North Boys' High School.

"He didn't play on Wednesday because of a school [Hastings Christian] trip," says his father.

But the teenager deftly picked up where he left off on Thursday, with an unbeaten 100 against St Pat's Silverstream (Wellington).

Clark will spurn the advances of other cricket powerhouse schools to remain at Hastings Christian because he is already receiving coaching from Craig Ross and Scott Briasco in the Central Districts high-performance programme leading into summer.

"Will has got talent but the programme has taken it to another level," says his father.