Rain didn't stop Northland's senior secondary schoolgirls and junior secondary schoolboys finishing their cricket tournaments on a high note last week.
The boys travelled to Rotorua while the girls went to Tauranga to compete in their respective Northern Districts competitions. The girls played a 10 over competition while the boys had a T20 and a 50 over competition.
The boys T20 tournament was split into two pools and Northland shared the second pool with Waikato Valley, Bay of Plenty Coastlands and a Northern Districts invitational team.
The weather played its part, cancelling three of their T20 games.
In their first game on Monday, Northland beat Waikato Valley by eight wickets, chasing down Waikato Valley's score of 93 in just over 15 overs. Northland's Nathan Condon and Nick Byles both scored 31 in the chase with Lucas James the pick of the bowlers with a tight 1-7 off four overs.
The boys were handed a heavy defeat by BOP in the second round. Northland bowled first and restricted their opponents to 123/7 off 20 overs, Reuben Crum and Cullen Hitlon-Jones both taking two wickets.
However, Northland's batting effort was poor, being rolled for 66 off 17.4 overs to lose by 57 runs. This sent them into a playoff for third against the second BOP team, BOP Lakelands.
Northland's young batsmen came out firing against a toothless BOP bowling attack scoring an impressive 198/2 with Condon the stand out, scoring 95 off 64 balls with 10 fours and two sixes.
He shared a 148-run partnership with wicketkeeper Sam Lints, who scored 67 off 38 balls with six fours and one six.
Northland returned in the second innings to restrict BOP to 105/8 off their 20 overs with four bowlers sharing two wickets each and Condon fielding well with three catches.
Rain heavily impacted the boys' 50 over competition, to a point where only one round able to be played.
Northland drew Counties Manukau and got off to a horrid start with the score at one stage being 30/4. However, opener Nick Byles dug in and produced a spectacular 114 to take the team to 193 all out.
It was a defendable score thanks to Byles' knock but their opponents were too good in the end, knocking off Northland's score in 41.3 overs, winning by three wickets.
Cole Jakicevich-Roberts was the best of Northland's bowlers with three wickets, along with Lucas James who bowled 10 overs for just 21 runs, taking one wicket.
Co-coach Karl Treiber said Byles defied his short stature to dominate the Counties Manukau bowlers.
"[Nick] stuck in there and mixed good running between the wickets with some high-quality hook and pull shots.
"He had some good support from other batters which was instrumental in Nick getting to his hundred and posting a good score."
Treiber said the result was to be expected with the team lacking in key areas but the team was in a good place for next year's calendar.
"Those key players performed really well and we will get the cream of the crop from the primary boys so we should be in good shape next year."
The senior secondary schoolgirls side faced stiff opposition in their Rotorua-based tournament after rain forced the first two rounds to be abandoned.
Their first game against Hamilton didn't go well with Northland batting first to make 59/1 from their 10 overs which Hamilton chased down in 7.3 overs. Makayla Templeton was the best of Northland's batswomen, scoring 32.
Northland second game against Poverty Bay came down to the wire with their opponents needing the last ball to overcome Northland's score of 83 to win by seven wickets.
Their final game against finished with a loss against Waikato Valley after losing by 17 runs against a team with a large number of Year 13 girls.
Coach Sam Sweeney said the team showed some promise for the future despite the losses.
One of our bowlers, Chelsea Trial, she was awesome and she's only Year 8 and playing against much older players.
"She bowled really well and fielded well and was just willing to learn."
He said all the girls gave a good account of themselves over the week and he hoped they would keep at it.
"Just keeping playing, practising, developing cricket awareness and cutting the extras out is important for the future but in general I was really impressed with them."