The gold and maroon of the Marton Saracens will not be seen in Premier 1 club cricket this season.
The reverberations from the disappointing 2017-18 season both at club and representative level are still being felt as the stumps prepare to go in for the new Cricket Wanganui summer, with an all-new governing board and one less senior club team.
At the August 26 AGM, former Wanganui coach Stuart Gillespie was voted in as chairman of the board, replacing Stu Gill.
Joining him are other fresh faces in Simon Atiken, Angela Rees, Tim Hocquard and Kellie Watkin, along with three current players representing their clubs.
Preparing a "new structure", Gillespie and development officer Dilan Raj confirmed they have signed a player-coach with first class experience to take over the Wanganui representative team, replacing Warren Marr, while the team is also getting a new naming sponsor.
That announcement will happen this week, just before Saturday's start to the new-look 10 team Coastal Challenge Cup, where the combined Wanganui and Horowhenua Kapiti 50-over competition has now been expanded to include two teams from Wairarapa – United CC and Red Star.
The success of Coastal Challenge Cup can been seen as a double-edged sword.
For one, it is a competitive and viable club tournament which the teams enjoy playing in, but on the other, senior cricket player numbers have shrunk so far down in the home town patches of these Central Districts minor associations that they are having to combine forces.
After two seasons of barely hanging on with small numbers, the Marton Saracens have folded their Premier 1 team for 2018-19, reducing the local clubs to just United, Tech, and Marist, along with the Wanganui Collegiate 1st XI who will again play in the Coastal Challenge.
Currently coming back from work and holiday in North America, Saracens stalwart Dominic Rayner said the club had lost several members to injury, overseas travel and their university-based players now joining the workforce outside of the district.
"So the numbers took a big hit. Rather than struggle we hope to return next season."
In recent years, Saracens has been carried by a core group of predominantly older players involved in senior cricket since they were teenagers, like the Rayner's – Dominic and Chris – Dan Ford, Hamish Harding, Scott Oliver, Sam Lambert and Josh Trillo.
The arrival of double-Wanganui sport representative Craig Clare two seasons ago gave them a competitive boost, but longer and physically demanding representative rugby seasons saw Clare step back.
There simply was not the next tier of quality young adult player coming through for Saracens, exceptions being Trillo and occasional Wanganui representative spinner Bryant Galpin.
Last season, Rayner looked to recruit Rangitikei schoolboys to fill the ever-widening gaps in the playing roster, but Saracens would not be sighted on the field after February 17 through until March 24 – missing all but the opening round of the Long Format red ball competition, then returning for the Twenty20 finals day to end the summer.
Shrinking player numbers, specifically of quality performers in their mid to late 20's, continues to be the bugbear of the Wanganui association and was reflected in a disastrous Furlong Cup campaign for the representative team with three outright losses and two first innings points defeats.
Coach Marr would ultimately use 23 players, many he admitted were not up to the standard, because as well as injuries, both senior and junior squad members alike regularly withdrew from games to attend weddings, birthdays, holiday trips and family commitments.
Rumblings of dissatisfaction and inadequate preparations for specific strengths of opposition followed.
Raj said among the immediate projects will be an indoor cricket centre for Wanganui, while he can split his development role with the new representative coach when it comes to drumming up enthusiasm in the grassroots between juniors and adults.
"[Finding] young guys who aspire to the next level.
"We have a a committed lot of guys who might not be our best players, but are committed players.
"Stu's whole drive is to get us working as a team."
Cricket Wanganui is made up of somewhat disparate groups – umpires, council of clubs, junior cricket and so on.
"He wants to bring all of them to a common area," said Raj.
Steam-lining the organisation could ruffle some feathers, but Gillespie said given he has no ties to any specific club, his ultimate goal is addressing the local game's development in a way mandated by CD Cricket and NZ Cricket, who "play by a whole different set of rules from a couple of years ago".
"After not having been on the board for a while, I'm still finding our feet for the resources we require.
"People would say it's a poisoned chalice, but I don't look at it that way.
"I think we've got a reasonable group of people [on the board] that have the betterment of Wanganui cricket on the mind and not their own agenda.
"I'm not going to say anything bad. Stu Gill did a good job, but times change."
Cricket Wanganui Board, 2018-19
Stuart Gillespie (Chairman)
Simon Atiken
Angela Rees
Tim Hocquard
Kellie Watkin
John McIlraith
Ross Kinnerley
Adam Heap
Projects for the Summer
1. Age and Stage (Developing primary and secondary school cricket).
2. Coach Development.
3. Inclusivity and Diversity (Girls cricket and getting into ethnic markets).
Significant Personnel Updates
*Saracens and Wanganui reps Dominic Rayner and Craig Clare, when available, will play for Marist.
*Whanganui's White Fern Jess Watkin will play the first season game for Tech before departing to prepare for the 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 in the West Indies in November.
*Double Wanganui representative Nick Harding has turned down joining the wider Wanganui Sevens rugby training group to focus on Marist.
*After last season's international player eligibility saga, Canadian Under 19 World Cup representative Akash Gill has spent the winter training in Whanganui and will qualify as a local player for representative duties, playing with Tech.
*Collegiate 1st XI has a new coach as Palmerston North-based Warren Herbert, formally of Auckland, successfully applied for the role, replacing Warren Marr. Herbert took the team for warm-up games in the Hawke's Bay.
Champion of Champions
The Premier 2 cricketers get centre stage at Victoria Park on Labour Weekend Sunday and Monday with the Champion of Champions tournament.
The 2017-18 champions the Wanganui Renegades will meet other P2 champion clubs in Levin Old Boys, Freyberg and Red Star for a 40-over tournament.
The finals will be on Monday.