City's Callum Gegg (with bat) announced himself as a player to watch this season with some standout performances across the three premier competitions. Photo / File
City's Callum Gegg (with bat) announced himself as a player to watch this season with some standout performances across the three premier competitions. Photo / File
Northland's premier cricket season wrapped up in lacklustre fashion this weekend with rain cancelling all three games.
All teams were set to finish their final game of the two-day competition on Saturday when rain interrupted play early in the day and the games were abandoned.
Despite Kaipara Flats being confirmedwinners the week before, the side finished 7.5 points above Coalies Onerahi Central in second-place. Duracrete Products City finished in third with Westech Automotive Maungakaramea, Kamo and Generation Homes Whangārei Boys' High School rounding out the bottom three.
This was Kaipara Flats' first competition win of the season after losing the T20 and one-day finals to City and Kamo respectively. In the reserve grade, City were dominant winning the 40-over and declaration cricket formats with Maungakaramea winning the T20 competition.
Matt Taylor and Rory Christopherson, left, were crucial in Kaipara Flats' success this season. Photo / File
Northland Cricket competitions manager Neal Parlane said it was good to see a range of clubs competing for competition titles across the premier and reserve grades.
"If you'd looked at it at the start of the premier season, the team that didn't win anything, Maungakaramea, would have been favoured to win a competition or two but they couldn't do it."
He said the junior cricket season had also run smoothly with a number of games being played across Northland. The headline of the junior season was to see four, all-girls' cricket teams playing against boys' teams in the junior A grade.
"They wanted to push themselves and it seems to be working out looking at the likes of Kamo Intermediate School girls' team going through to the nationals and the junior and senior secondary schools teams competing in Northern Districts competitions," he said.
The only blemish on the season was to see three players cited and one player banned for incidents of bad behaviour on or off the field. Parlane said it was disappointing to see this behaviour but it was good that clubs were taking matters into their own hands.
"There's been a couple of clubs who have stepped down players for bad behaviour both on the field and off the field which is good because there's just no place for it anymore.
"Whether it's between player and player or player and umpire, our umpires don't need that and we don't want young kids and parents seeing that or hearing it."
Parlane, a former Northern Districts player, said it was important to secure the depth of players in local clubs to ensure the quality of competition in the future.
Chris Page's dominance with the ball and bat was evident in the one-day competition, seen here with bat in hand beside Kamo left-arm spinner David Armitt. Photo / File
Northland Cricket had not yet reviewed the season but Parlane said it would be working with clubs to see what could be done to improve next season. He said he hoped to see an improvement in club retention of players and wanted to explore the prospect of more mid-week games.
"We do listen to our players and discuss what we think might work and might not work but our clubs are really important to us so we are trying to find things that work for everybody."
The season would be officially closed on Friday evening when the junior and senior prize-givings would be held at Cobham Oval.
Highest run-scorer: Callum Gegg (City) with 152 runs at an average of 38 and a high score of 67. Competition's highest score: 79no from Fletcher Coutts (Onerahi)
Bowling:
Highest wicket-taker: Callum Gegg (City) with six wickets at an average of six runs per wicket and an economy of 4.6 runs per over. Gegg's best figures were three wickets for 13 runs. Competition's best figures: 3 for 11 from Simar Virk (Kaipara Flats)
Fielding:
Best fielder: Harry Darkins (City) with four catches and one unassisted run-out.
Highest run-scorer: Callum Garden (City) with 267 runs at an average of 38 runs and a high score of 59no. Competition's highest score: 117 from Callum Gegg (City)
Highest wicket-taker: Chris Page (Maungakaramea) with 18 wickets at an average of 11.94 runs per wicket and an economy of 4.01 runs per over. Page's best figures were five wickets for 11 runs. Competition's best figures: 5 for 11 from Chris Page (Maungakaramea)
Fielding:
Best fielder: Rory Christopherson (Kaipara Flats) with 15 catches and three stumpings.
Most valuable player:
1. Chris Page (Maungakaramea) 2. Garry Paine (City) 3. Sean Doel (Onerahi)
Highest run-scorer: Matt Taylor (Kaipara Flats) with 190 runs at an average of 31.67 runs and a high score of 104. Competition's highest score: 124 no from Craig Elliot (City)
Bowling:
Highest wicket-taker: Luke Beaven (Kaipara Flats) with 20 wickets at an average of 7.95 runs per wicket and an economy of 1.95 runs per over. Beaven's best figures were six wickets for 25 runs. Competition's best figures: 7 for 20 from Byron Jollivet (Kaipara Flats)
Fielding:
Best fielder: Bert Horner (Maungakaramea) with 11 catches, one stumping and one assisted run-out.
