Toby Findlay on the scoop earlier in the season. Napier Tech remain the benchmark for HB club cricket and took the overall title with a win on Saturday.
This article is provided courtesy of Hawke’s Bay Cricket Association
Napier Technical Old Boys secured the overall championship for 2025/26, but arguably the biggest winner from Saturday was Cornwall.
With two rounds of the MJF Shrimpton Memorial Cup 50-over competition to be played before the semifinals, Tech’s combined tally of 102.5 points across all formats can’t be topped.
They remain the benchmark and underlined their credentials for a clean sweep of this season’s titles with an impressive four wicket win over Havelock North at Nelson Park on Saturday.
Chasing 279, Tech got there with 12 balls remaining thanks to strong contributions from the top four and an unbeaten 80 from allrounder Bayley Latter.
Any win over a rival as accomplished as Havelock North is grounds for celebration, but doubly so when it also sews up the overall crown.
“It’s definitely something we’ve talked about and that we were aiming for and striving for as a group,” Latter said.
“We’ve obviously got a pretty proud history of winning it and coming into this environment, I definitely wanted to keep that going and keep that culture high.”
This is the former Manawatū representative’s first season at Tech, where his off spin has certainly caught the eye. A top-order player by trade, Latter has batted further down at Tech and taken time to adjust to that finishing role.
He did that in some style on Saturday, hitting four sixes and five fours in his 63-ball stint at the crease.
“The boys up top got us off to a really good start, especially Footey [Baylee Foote]. I just wanted to try and keep that momentum going and see it through to the end,” said Latter.
“[Ball striking] is definitely something I’ve tried to work on, especially batting lower down in the order. It’s good to feel that bat on ball and make some good contact.”
Foote made 69, Todd Watson 44 and Harrison Woolley 41 to give Tech the impetus to hunt down a Havelock North total of 278/8 built around 142 from opener Taylor Bettelheim.
Runs were harder to come by at Cornwall Park, where the home side found a way to make 158/6 and beat Central Hawke’s Bay by four wickets.
Following a couple of pretty disappointing defeats, there was a suspicion Cornwall had taken their bat and ball and gone home for the summer.
But, on a difficult pitch, Bayley Wiggins’ 54 and an unbroken stand of 61 for the seventh wicket between Simphiwe Yiba (38 not out) and Josh Fairbrother (28 not out) took them to victory with 5.4 overs to spare.
“It’s not our talent, it’s not our depth, it’s just showing a bit of ... grit,” Wiggins said.
Yiba, in the comparatively high spot of seven in the batting order, typified that. He laboured 82 balls for his unbeaten 38, showing stout defence and latterly beautiful hands to hoist balls over cover for six.
The 33-year-old medium pacer played first-class cricket for Western Province, in his native South Africa, boasting best figures of 4-35 against Griqualand West at Newlands.
“He’s always batted lower for us but, I thought, spinning wicket, he plays spin well so he might come off,” said Wiggins.
“It was just basic old style cricket. We’re not done.”
And neither is Taradale, whose 113-run win at home over Napier Old Boys’ Marist pushed them past CHB and into fourth-place in the 50-over standings.
Callum Hewetson made 77 in Taradale’s 237/9, before allrounder Nihal Shilar underlined his immense value to the team, making 45 and then claiming 5-25 as Marist was bowled out for 124.
Tech leads this competition from Cornwall, Havelock North and Taradale but the composition of the top four could be quite different in a fortnight’s time.
Taradale meets Havelock North and Cornwall to conclude the round robin portion of the competition and are coming into some useful form, particularly with the bat.
Taradale captain Luke Kenworthy said: “It’s in our own hands. We’ve got the two teams that are currently above us and we know a win this weekend and a win in the final week will maybe even get us away from fourth place and give us a semifinal probably against someone other than Tech”.
That remains to be seen. For now, there was satisfaction at a clinical job against Marist to remain in the finals hunt.
“We played really well. It was a tricky wicket to get started on and thankfully Callum and Nihal were able to form a partnership which allowed us to score a few at the end and then we got wickets early and good disciplined bowling from the seamers put the pressure on them,” said Kenworthy.
“We’re happy it’s in our own hands and, yeah, we’ve just got to go out and do it now.”
Scoreboards:
Central Hawke’s Bay 157 (Harry Mowat 25, Thomas Zohrab 20; Simphiwe Yiba 3-42, Josh Fairbrother 2-8, Jed Greville 2-31) lost to Cornwall 158/6 (Bayley Wiggins 54, Simphiwe Yiba 38 not out, Josh Fairbrother 28 not out; Thomas Zohrab 3-33, Angus Schaw 2-21) by four wickets.
Taradale 237/9 (Callum Hewetson 77, Nihal Shilar 45, Josh Young 33; Mitchell Innes 3-44, Pritpal Singh 2-21) beat Napier Old Boys’ Marist 124 (Josh Paerau 41, Pritpal Singh 26; Nihal Shilar 5-25, Sachin Jayawardena 2-7) by 113 runs.
Havelock North 278/8 (Taylor Bettelheim 142, Sam Ferguson 47, Lovepreet Padda 39; Kieran Atkinson 4-41, Todd Watson 3-60) lost to Napier Technical Old Boys 280/6 (Bayley Latter 80 not out, Baylee Foote 69, Todd Watson 44, Harrison Woolley 41, Tyler Annand 25 not out; Sam Cassidy 3-49) by four wickets.
Overall points: NTOB 102.5, Cornwall 84.5, Havelock North 70.5, CHB 66.5, Taradale 51.5, NOBM 40.5.
50-over points: NTOB 46, Cornwall 39, Havelock North 38, Taradale 30, CHB 29, NOBM 21.