Cricket: NOBM win keeps the Bay flag flying

The NOBM premier team

The Hawke's Bay flag will still be flying to earn the right to play in the national premier inter-club men's championship playoffs after Napier Old Boys' Marist's victory at the weekend.

The Station-sponsored NOBM side beat Top Pub Greytown CC (Wairarapa) by five wickets at Nelson Park, Napier, last Sunday in their qualifying match for the Central Districts region.

The Bevin Pollock-skippered team will now play against other qualifiers on Waitangi Day weekend on Friday, February 6, in Palmerston North where they will find out who their opponents will be from a hat.

It is the first time in the history of NOBM that their premier side had made the cut from the Bay qualifying round.

"From a club perspective it's fantastic for the region to do that," pivotal batsman Mathew Sinclair said last night.

The premier men's club upset powerhouses Complete Flooring Napier Technical Old Boys just before Christmas in the Bay final before advancing further than last summer's qualifiers, Heretaunga Building Society Cornwall CC, who lost away to Greytown CC at the same stage.

Sinclair said for most NOBM players it was a test of where they want to be in their careers.

Greytown, without injured paceman Seth Rance, made a bolshy start on 108-1 but the rot set in as they slumped for 216.

Brendan Quinn got 3-50 but Sinclair (2-30) and Anoop Renuka-Prajad (1-32) were the most frugal.

In reply, the hosts overhauled the target with 218-5 in 41.1 overs.

Opener Damien Scott scored 66 runs, Sinclair made 64 at No 4 while the other opener, Jaspeet Singh, added 45 to the cause.

The NOBM players had tied in a match against Ruahine Motors Ford Central Hawke's Bay in their Property Brokers Hawke's Bay 50-over premier men's club competition the previous day at Nelson Park.