A couple of great weeks for our Cadets junior cricketers
It has been a couple of good weekends for our junior cricketers over the last two weekends with a couple of teams getting their first wins and a number of personal milestone performances that I feel should be recognised.
20th March: Hamish Boyt
Our college reserve team has had a tough season so far but had their first win against TBC Cavaliers, They won convincingly due in big part to a maiden half century to Hamish Boyt who retired on 51* off 44 balls. This follows his 24 off 24 the previous week which I was also told was his highest score to that point. Well done Hamish, keep up the improvement mate.
21st March: Ciaran Manning
The Year 7/8 Sunday League team had a close fought game against current competition leaders Papamoa. Cadets struggled through to a score of 128 with the bat thanks largely to what was a very mature innings of 41 by Luca Mockford. Papamoa were pretty much cruising at 118 for 5 until Ciaran Manning produced a hattrick. This inspired the lads who then bowled superbly by all reports to build the pressure and took the final wicket with six balls remaining to take the victory.
21st March: Lachie Balfour
Following on from an undefeated 53* for TBC against the Cadets B-Grade on Saturday Lachie Balfour was promoted from No.9 the previous week to opening the batting for our Year 9/10 Sunday League team after Te Maniwha pulled out sick. Cadets batted first and Lachie was fantastic in posting his first ever century finishing on 103. He and Joel Griffiths (62) shared a 3rd wicket partnership of 171 after the loss of two fairly early wickets setting the team up for a total of 306 which was never really challanged. Well done Lachie. May it be the first of many. Maybe again next week perhaps???
27th March: Dan Anderton and Adam Manners
The College Premier Black team has mostly been together all season and dispite some very close games have not got across the line for a win.This all changed against TBC Blue. An improved bowling and fielding effort, including 3-21 from Vaibhav Choubey, restricted TBC to a score of 165. However, batting has been a bit of a problem and with no opening volunteers it was left to the numbers 10 and 11 for the Sunday League team to step into the roles. Together Dan Anderton and Adam Manners put on a partnership of 101 in 15 overs. Dan brought up his maiden fifty and the 100 partnership with a boundary to finish on 52* (43 balls) and Adam brough up his maiden fifty with the winning run to finish on 50* (77 balls). Great 8 wicket win lads. Keep it up.
27th March: Joshua Espitalier, Jean Roux, Lucas Grant
The Cadets B-Grade team played against TBC Blue at Tauranga Domain. Unfortunately the TBC team won the match but a big part of their success was due to the performanes of two of our Cadets Year 9/10 Sunday league players. Josh Espitalier unfortunately lost the strike for the last few balls of the innings to end on 98 not out (94 balls), two runs short of his maiden ton, and he was ably supported by Jean Roux with 56 (49 balls) which I think is his first B-Grade fifty. In the Cadets innings Lucas Grant brought up his first senior fifty aslo finishing on 51(58 balls).
28th March: Year 9/10 Sunday League team
With Cadets having the bye in the last round Cadets had the opportunity to complete a clean sweep of the 50 over championship agaisnt Greerton. With Utsav injured Lachie Balfour remained at the top of the order and backed up his maiden century last week with a polished innings of 93 (83 balls). Logan Murray scored 45 (39 balls) abd the innings was finished nicely by Josh Espitalier following up 98* the previous day with 56 (60 balls) and Lucas Grant with 27* (33 balls).Greerton need 294 to win but never got close. After both openers were smartly run out and an early wicket from Lucas Greerton were rocked by two wickets in two balls in Adam Manners' first over. Greerton were finally dismissed for only 126. Adam finished wish 3 for 25 leaving him 6 wickets clear of the next highest wicket takers who have a game left and Lachie 129 runs ahead of the next best batsman with a chance of catching him. Congratulations to the team for playing to their potential and taking out the competition.