Baywide cricket action set to resume

Te Puke batsman Simon Eves in action before the Christmas break. Photo / File

The next two weekend rounds of the Baywide Twenty20 competition will dust off the holiday cobwebs before the seven Baywide teams embark on the chase for the season's big prize of the Williams Cup.

With just three rounds of qualifying before the top two sides fight out the T20 championship final, the title race is wide open with New World Te Puke, Eves Realty Greerton, Carrus Mount Maunganui and Element IMF Cadets tied together with three wins after the opening four rounds.

Theoretically, Mount Maunganui are in the box seat being the only side of the top four contenders to have sat out the bye so far. TomorrowTe Puke and Greerton will sit out a game with Cadets drawing the bye in round seven next weekend.

Taking centre stage at Fergusson Park in the early afternoon action will be Greerton and Mount Maunganui. Both contenders have Baywide club cricket experience in spades. Mount skipper Dale Swan has played more than two hundred premier games for his club while Greerton's Bay of Plenty batsman Tom MacRury has the T20 competition's highest score of 91.

In other round- five encounters, Cooney Lees Morgan Tauranga Boys' College will meet Bayleys Central Indians with GM Painters Lake Taupo CC squaring off with Cadets.

Mount Maunganui and Cadets should produce a barn-burner in round six. There is no one in the Baywide T20 title race more experienced than Cadets captain Jono Boult with 47 Northern Knights T20 appearances, taking 43 wickets with best figures of 4/23.

Te Puke make their appearance in the late afternoon round of matches against Tauranga Boys'. Te Puke master-blaster Stephen Crossan leads the competition batting stakes with 177 runs, producing an outstanding strike rate of 212 (per one hundred balls).

Central Indians and Lake Taupo CC meet in round six with the winner grabbing their first win of the title race.

Baywide Twenty20

Round Five
Eves Realty Greerton v Carrus Mount Maunganui, Fegusson 1; Cooney Lees Morgan Tauranga Boys' College v Bayleys Central Indians, Fergusson 2; Element IMF Cadets v GM Painters Lake Taupo CC, Fegusson 3; New World Te Puke the bye.
Round Six
Cooney Lees Morgan Tauranga Boys' College v New World Te Puke, Fergusson 2; Element IMF Cadets v Carrus Mount Maunganui, Fergusson 3; GM Painters Lake Taupo CC v Bayleys Central Indians, Fergusson 1; Eves Realty Greerton the bye.

Points table: New World Te Puke 13, Eves Realty Greerton 13, Carrus Mount Maunganui 13, Element IMF Cadets 13; GM Painters Lake Taupo CC 4, Cooney Lees Morgan Tauranga Boys' College 4, Bayleys Central Indians 4.

WBOPCA Reserve Grade Draw

Cadets v Greerton Sikh XI, Tauranga Domain; Greerton v Mount Maunganui, Pemberton Park; Whakatane United v Katikati, Gordon Spratt Domain; Aquinas College v Albion Singh XI, Fergusson 4; Tauranga Boys' College win by default from R&A Sangha, Te Puke the bye.

Points Table
Greerton Sikh XI 150, Cadets 146, Greerton 130, Tauranga Boys' College 126, Mount Maunganui 126, Albion Singh XI 120, Aquinas College 112, Whakatane United 105, Te Puke 83, R&A Sangha 73, Katikati 59.