The home team in reply could only manage 45 all out after 23 overs to hand their Whangarei rivals a comfortable victory.
Things got off on the wrong foot from the very first delivery, with the Keri player at the crease going out for a golden duck. (It should perhaps be noted the term opening batsman was misleading as coach Simon Hart revolves his players in order to give everyone a crack).
City coach Gary Saunders commiserated with the vanquished opposition after the game: "Your fielding and bowling was good," he said, but trailing off as he mentioned the homeside's "batting ... "
Hart, meanwhile, was just happy to see his kids remain in good heart despite the comprehensive walloping they had just been handed.
"Yesterday wasn't our day," he said on Sunday, adding City were a "good" team.
"Our boys, they knew they had an off-game. These two teams are a lot closer than this result suggests. They [Kerikeri boys] are always enthusiastic, look forward to playing, look forward to practice, there's the making of a good first XI in a few years' time."
It was a long weekend for Hart who also watched his son, Max, playing for the Northland Year 9 reps against Western Districts on the grass wicket (which he described as "pretty special") at Kaipara Flats on Sunday. The A-grade competition is set to continue through until the end of March. Also in the competition - aimed at secondary school students from Years 7-8 - are Northern Wairoa, Onerahi Central, Kamo and Rodney.
One thing clearly obvious at Kerikeri on Saturday was the enjoyment the young players were taking from following the exploits of the Black Caps, currently unbeaten in the ICC (one-day) Cricket World Cup being co-hosted in Australia and New Zealand. The event has certainly generated near unprecedented interest in the summer game to the extent that even the start of Super Rugby has been relegated to the inside pages of the sports pages in national newspapers.
Following the Black Caps' hatchet job on England in Wellington last Friday, it seemed likely this coming weekend's round in A-Grade competition will be called off, with a number of players expected to catch the highly-touted match between New Zealand and Australia at Eden Park, or at least watch as the game unfolded on the box.
Several Kerikeri players also spoke enthusiastically about their favourite players. The standout for pace bowler Nathan McIlroy was Tim Southee (who claimed seven English wickets last week), while Nimish Singh and Ari Leonard said their favourite was Kane Williamson, "because he's good!" Mason Frear liked big-hitting skipper Brendon McCullum, while wicketkeeper Luke Halligan followed the progress of his counterpart in the national team, Luke Ronchi.
Asked about players from other teams worth looking out for, South Africa's AB de Villiers was mentioned, as was Australia's David Warner - although the latter's mention incited much ridicule including the exclamation: "He's a knob!"
Seems that schoolboy cricket, world cup fervour and good ol' transtasman rivaly are all in rude health in the Bay of Islands at the moment.
