Campion win a ‘total team effort’

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Jacobus Du Preez is officially a match-winner.

The Campion College No.11 batsman cleared the infield with a hefty hoick to give the school side their second win of the cricket season.

Du Preez (8 not out) split George Gillies and Lukas Fry with a boundary to secure a memorable win against the Senior B Grade’s defending champions, the Civil Project Solutions Ngatapa Green Caps.

It was the closest of four club matches held at the Harry Barker Reserve on Saturday.

Long-serving Campion player-coach Mark Naden said: “It took a total team effort to get the win. Our captain Hamish Swann got 22, his opening partner Taye McGuinness got 35, and Anikate Bhandral made a run-a-ball 13 from No.6.

“When we bowled, Rhys Grogan (1-22) and Connor Starck (1-31) made good use of the new ball and Hamish, as the fourth bowler, took 2-39. Rhys, Connor, Hamish and our MVP (most valuable player) Gagandeep Singh — 4-28 at first-change – all bowled out.”

Ngatapa captain Charles Morrison (15) won the toss and took first knock.

“It was a good contest,” he said.

“It’s great to see Campion improving, and they deserved to win. Considering the weather, the pitch (HBR No.2) had a bit of life in it early on and played well.”

Morrison and young wicketkeeper-batsman Charlie Castles (16) opened the batting. Hayden Swann — Hamish’s father — fielding at point, was alert to Castles’ attempt to pinch a single. Swann’s throw to Campion gloveman McGuinness saw Castles run out off the second-to-last ball of the fourth over, with the score at 31.

Ngatapa posted 122 in 24.4 overs, 10th-man-in EJ Nepe making an unbeaten 31 off 29 balls and sharing in a 29-run stand for the last wicket with No.11 Chris Kaa.

Ngatapa MVP Nepe’s return to cricket a year ago — he had been a member of the Brian Cairns-coached Gisborne Boys’ High School third 11 in 1986 — shows that cricket can draw back those who love the game, however long they’ve been away.

Hamish Swann and McGuinness gave Campion a tremendous start to their run-chase with a partnership of 63.

But good line, length and shape from Ngatapa first-change seamer George Whitehead (3-21 from six overs, one maiden) and off-spinner George Gillies (3-16 from four overs) soon yielded results.

Whitehead bowled McGuinness three balls into the fourth over of his spell, then Rhys Grogan for a golden duck. With two balls left in the 14th over, Connor Starck was on strike for the hat-trick ball. He survived it, and three more balls before he was out, for the addition of only one run. Campion were then 64-3.

Swann was out, hit wicket, with the score at 70, Singh (1) fell at 71 and it was then that Bhandral played his best hand of the season so far – one that swung the game back towards the college.

Campion were 120-9 one ball into the 26th over when Jacobus Du Preez clouted tall medium-pacer Sam Briant over the top for four and the win. Du Preez, twin to Cornelius Du Preez (0 from three balls at No.9), was eight not out and Briant went without a wicket (0-25 from 4.2 overs).

Thom Berry leads by example.

The burly Rawhiti Legal Old Boys Rugby captain completed a run-out, held a catch and made 51 at the top of the order in OBR’s four-wicket win against Breakers Horouta Te Waka.

Of the Round 7, Senior B Grade club match on HBR No.2, Berry said: “We were at full strength looking for payback, as Horouta beat us by four wickets in Round 2. Karan Solanki took 2-26 from five overs for us, and in the chase Tim Scrimshaw, a very good timer of the ball, made 28 off 38 balls batting at No.5.”

Horouta skipper Riley Horsfield won the toss and chose to bat. Te Waka were all out for 159 in 26.1 overs. Their MVP was all-rounder Anand Kinayath, who scored 39 off 27 balls at No.5. He steered their innings from 52-5 to 97-6.

George Judd — with 22 off 36 balls from No.8 — steered them from 97 to 159, and was the last man to fall.

In their first partnership of note, opener Tony Bucheler, who made 18, showed his mettle in a 25-run stand for the fourth wicket.

Solanki and veteran medium-pacer Amit Vyas (2-26 from six overs) were the pick of OBR’s bowling attack, but Berry will no doubt urge that tried-and-true unit to reduce the wide-ball count with one game left to play before the Christmas break. They conceded 41 wides out of 43 extras to The Waka.

In the run-chase, Berry put on 30 for the second wicket with Tom Garrett (15) and 82 with Scrimshaw before Berry was run out with the score at 140-3, five balls into the 22nd over.

Left-arm orthodox spinner Clarence Campbell took 2-27 from six overs with one maiden — a grand effort from a bowler of that type — as spearhead Kinayath’s foil.

Kinayath did his best to keep Horouta hopes alive with two wickets in the 23rd over — the second of which was a big one, Scrimshaw being caught by ’keeper Horsfield.

But it was left to Franco Ludwig, who made 12 not out off 16 balls batting at No.9, to hit the first ball of the 27th over for two runs as OBR claimed the win.

The Chicking High School Old Boys Presidents were never going to struggle chasing 60 to beat Gisborne Boys’ High School (2) at Harry Barker Reserve.

Boys’ High captain Jett Whitaker won the toss and chose to bat on a No.4 wicket with a greenish tinge.

Without their batting hero of last week, Seb Wilson (101 at first-drop against Horouta), and with experienced Steve Whitaker out, leg before wicket, for nought, Boys’ High were up against it.

They were all out for 59 in 25.3 overs.

Only left-hander Jordyn Haley, who hit two boundaries in his 22 minutes at the crease, reached double-figures — 13. He was bowled by the Presidents’ game-day skipper, Yegan Lanka (4-8 from six overs). Fellow medium-pacer Hiren Bhatti, the sixth bowler used, had the best Saturday of any bowler in Poverty Bay cricket at the weekend. He took five wickets — the last five to fall – without conceding a run in 3.3 overs.

The pitch played well. After bowling a few wides early on as they adjusted to the movement of the ball off the seam, the wily HSOB attack put clamps on the Boys’ High batsmen.

Boys’ High responded by taking four wickets in defence of 59. The Presidents won the game by six wickets in 17.2 overs before sixth-man-in Ollie Needham (5no) pulled the third ball from Bjorn Botma (0-5) — a short ball from the off-spinner in only his second Senior B Grade match — for four runs.

Swing bowler Brandon Fearnley (1-7 from three overs) was as accurate at first change as he had been with the new ball against Horouta a week before.

Fearnley’s partner in pace of a week before, left-armer Caleb Taewa, was on this occasion even tidier than he had been against The Waka (1-20 from six overs). He was wicketless yet conceded even fewer runs — 17 — won the MVP award, and again bowled out.

Presidents MVP Lanka said: “We always look forward to the clash with Boys’ High because the lads bring energy, youth and enthusiasm, which requires us to be switched on from the first ball.

“The key for us was to take wickets up front, which we haven’t done consistently, so it was good to go back to back (after the win by five wickets against Campion last week) and bowl the opposition out.

“Against Gisborne Boys’ High, we gave some players an opportunity to bat in different positions, which didn’t pan out as we’d hoped, but our calm stalwarts managed to steady the ship.”

GBHS captain Jett Whitaker said: “Our bowling and fielding were on point but we need to improve our batting. That’s what we need to work on.”