Rotorua enjoyed a successful Easter, with two of its junior cricket sides recording wins over more highly fancied Aucklanders.
The Rotorua under-13 and under-16 teams took on their Auckland Eastern Districts counterparts over the weekend, each playing two one-day matches.
The Auckland sides, which included some of the city's bestyoung players, took out both matches on Saturday. However, Rotorua turned that around to win on Sunday.
Rotorua Cricket high-performance coach Dave Richardson said it was an awesome effort, with the boys showing "lots of courage under pressure".
He said there were several strong individual performances, including under-13 bowler Sean Ingram, who took five for 32 in Sunday's win. In a thrilling finale, 13-year-old Ingram dismissed the last batsman with the final ball of the innings with the Auckland side needing just one run to tie the match. Liam Hori Clarke also stood out for the under-13s, scoring 31 and 32 with the bat and picking up two wickets in each match.
In the under-16 fixtures, Sam Murdoch grabbed three wickets on Saturday and scored 24 on Sunday, while Ethan Martin and Cameron Wood contributed knocks of 24 and 22 respectively.
"A lot of the credit has to go to the coaches who have done great with these boys this season," Richardson said. The under-16s are coached by Mark Berry and Kisor Ranchod, while Karl McKnight and John Nieuwoudt are in charge of the under-13s.
