Cricket: First round of 2017 set to excite

Duracrete Products City captain Craig Little will be looking for two days of good performances from his charges this weekend. Photo/John Stone

Normal club cricket resumes this Saturday after a three week holiday break and expectations are high for a quality weekend.

The Premier division enters round two of the Oxford Trust Two Day Competition, while the Reserve Grade continues their way through the 40 over division.

Kensington Park will host two of the round's three fixtures, with Onerahi Central at home to Kamo and Whangarei Boys High School First XI taking on Westech Automotive Maungakaramea.

Maungakaramea are in second place with Kamo just behind them after picking up first innings points in their drawn matches against Onerahi Central and Kaipara Flats respectively.

The other match sees Duracrete Products City travel to Bourne Dean Park to take on Kaipara Flats in one of their two matches this weekend.

City's other match is against Manukau Cricket Club in the semi finals of the Northern Districts region of the Club Championships.

Captain Craig Little said his side has settled back into training well after the three week break and they aren't getting ahead of themselves this weekend.

"We've come back pretty good I think. Most of the boys are back and training now so we should be good to go for the weekend," he said.

"The focus right now is on Saturday. You have to play the one in front of you. There's no point thinking about Sunday with a tough match on Saturday in front of us."

"Kaipara Flats are a tight knit bunch. They won't give up and you have to be on your game the whole day because if you give them a sniff, they'll take it."

"If you can't get up for the first game back, you're never going to be up for a game are you?"

Looking to their clash at Cobham Oval on Sunday, Manukau have been a form team in the last few years and are the home club of Black Caps spinner Ish Sodhi and Northern Districts batsman Nick Kelly.

Manukau were the Northern Districts representative at the National Club Championships last season.

Little said getting to the National tournament will be a major coup for the club and for Northland.

"It would be massive to be the champions of the Northern Districts area, but we potentially have two tough games against big opposition," he said.

"We haven't got to this point in a while (the last time was during the 2007/08 season) so it would be huge for us to represent Northland and to be the best in the Northern Districts area."

Meanwhile it's back to business for the Reserve grade as they work their way back into the 40 over competition.

There will be no shortage of action from Kensington Park with three games going there, adding to the two premier matches.

WBHS Second XI take on Onerahi Central, Kamo High School face Bream Bay and Duracrete Products City face Westech Automotive Maungakaramea at the ground.

The other match pits Kerikeri against Kamo at Kerikeri High School.