Lindisfarne College: Schoolboy cricket star blasts 236, setting record

Batsman Sam Cassidy has a bright future in the sport. Photo / Warren Buckland

If you walk past Lindisfarne College's cricket field this summer consider wearing a helmet.

The Hastings school's 1st XI boasts its own master blaster in no.3 batsman Sam Cassidy - who scored 236 not out off 139 balls last Friday including 11 sixes.

While the 50-over match was a pre-season game against Whanganui Collegiate 1st XI, it has officially gone down as a school record.

The previous record (205 runs) at the Hastings school was set by current Hawke's Bay men's player Dominic Thompson.

Cassidy, 17, has now scored four centuries for his high school and will tell you he is in the form of his life after cracking 200 for the first time.

"This is definitely the best form I have ever been in," he said.

Sam Cassidy in action on his way to 236. Photo / Supplied

"[During the off-season] I have just tried to get the fundamentals downpat."

The Year 12 student said he knew the school record before walking out into the middle on Friday.

"And my coach kept telling me about it," he said. "I got a clap when I reached it."

He said by the time the innings was over, the achievement had only just started to sink in.

"I was quite tired at the time and it did not really hit me until after."

He reached his 100 with few, if any, mistakes but was dropped a handful of times on his way to 236 - while blasting the ball around the park.

Sam Cassidy is turning plenty of heads in school cricket. Photo / Warren Buckland

"It got quite frustrating after the drops ... I just tried to block it out."

Cassidy, whose favourite player is Kane Williamson, said his focus this season was to help the school win as many trophies as possible.

The Central Districts' age group representative also said he wanted to see how far he could go in the game in the future.

Lindisfarne won the match on Friday by 237 runs. However, the two sides played again the following day and Lindisfarne just scraped a win with Cassidy sitting out for a rest.

Lindisfarne College head of cricket Matt Kidd said the knock was "pretty exceptional".

"He has a tonne of potential and could go a long way in the game," Kidd said.

"He is a big, strong lad and has really good technique and works hard at his game."

Kidd said the match was played at the school grounds on a grass wicket and was part of a pre-season quad tournament with four schools taking part.

He said Cassidy also scored 72 the day before against Scots College.

Hawke's Bay Cricket Association CEO Craig Findlay said it was an impressive score from Cassidy.

"230 is a pretty awesome score in a school game," he said.

"We had heaps of other good performances last week too from our local talent."