Williams Cup: Ōtūmoetai vs Te Puke in Bay of Plenty cricket competition

Joe Mcluskie from Ōtūmoetai Cadets in action during last year's Williams Cup competition. Photo / File

Nine weeks of Williams Cup action is about to get under way with an opening match between two clubs littered with championship titles.

The Versatile Tauranga Williams Cup title race starts tomorrow, with defending champions Ōtūmoetai's Element IMF Cadets facing off against New World Te Puke. The honours board of both clubs is littered with Williams Cup championship titles, with both teams sure to want to take bragging rights from the encounter.

The competition will feature seven qualifying rounds and two weekends of playoffs to reveal the winner of Cup at the Bay Oval on March 28.

For many years the Williams Cup was a challenge prize, which brought teams together from the various club competitions in the Bay of Plenty. Names on the trophy such as Ōpōtiki, Ngongotahā, Arawa, Taupō and (Tauranga) Albion reflect the strengths of Bay of Plenty cricket in times gone by.

One Western Bay of Plenty club that has successfully run the gauntlet of time is Te Puke, who leads the Williams Cup all-time victories. The first of their 17 wins came in the 1938/39 season, with the most recent in 2016. The competition started in the 1932/33 season.

The most successive victories was posted by the Arawa Cricket Club from Rotorua, who had their name engraved on the time-honoured prize, on eight occasions during the 1950s and 1960s. In the last three decades, Ōtūmoetai Cadets have been the team to beat, with their name being engraved on the Williams Cup 11 times since the 1994/95 season.

Last season's runner-up Bayleys Central Indians, who were beaten by Cadets by six wickets in the final, start their current Williams Cup campaign with a road trip to the Western Bay of Plenty to face Bond & Co Tauranga Boys' College at Nicholson field.

Revenge will be on the mind of Eves Realty Greerton when Carrus Mount Maunganui pays a visit to Pemberton Park. Just two weekends ago, the two premier teams battled out the 2019/20 Baywide T20 Final with Mount Maunganui squeezing home by just four runs.

Generation Homes Lake Taupō can be happy with their first 11's performance in the Baywide T20, reaching the top four playoffs for the first time since joining the Baywide ranks three seasons ago. They'll play Baywide newcomers Geyser City at home in round one.

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Versatile Tauranga Williams Cup February 1 draw:
Eves Realty Greerton vs Carrus Mount Maunganui, Pemberton Park; Generation Homes Lake Taupō vs Geyser City, Owen Delany Park; Bond and Co Tauranga Boys' College vs Bayleys Central Indians, Nicholson Field; New World Te Puke vs Element IMF Cadets, Te Puke Domain.

Williams Cup Champions (2000-2019):
2019 (Ōtūmoetai Cadets) 2018 (Greerton) 2017 (Ōtūmoetai Cadets) 2016 (Te Puke) 2015 (Mount Maunganui) 2014 (Te Puke) 2013 (Mount Maunganui) 2012 (Greerton) 2011 (Mount Maunganui) 2010 (Cadets) 2009 (Tauranga Boys' College) 2008 (Mount Maunganui) 2007 (Rotorua Central) 2006 (Cadets) 2005 (Cadets) 2004 (Te Puke) 2003 (Cadets) 2002 (Albion) 2001 (Te Puke) 2000 (AC United).