Coach Matt Greig taking young cricketers through some practice drills at Dannevirke Domain.
Coach Matt Greig taking young cricketers through some practice drills at Dannevirke Domain.
By Leanne Warr
Some of Dannevirke’s junior cricketers will be facing a bit of a learning curve as they prepare for Hawke’s Bay Cricket Camp, also known as Riverbend Camp.
Going since 1979, coach Matt Greig says it’s a tournament where any club in New Zealand can enter from Year 4s up to Year 13s.
Six games of cricket are played over four days but the emphasis is on kids getting together and playing cricket.
No scores are recorded, but there may be individual honours for achievements such as getting 50 runs, taking three wickets in bowling, or run-outs in the field.
“Your name goes on a list and at the very end of the tournament the list is published and if you get your name on the list, that’s seen as a trophy.”
Fielding for Dannevirke as Cornwall bats at a junior cricket game held on Dannevirke Domain.
Some of Dannevirke’s younger cricketers got a taste of representative cricket during a game against Cornwall last weekend.
Matt says they’ll be sending Years 7 and 8 to the camp in January, but he was watching some of the Year 6s playing to see which ones will be able to go up a level or who “might not be quite there yet, but they will be ready in the next year or so”.
A Dannevirke player shows good bowling form in a junior cricket game against Cornwall Cricket Club.
It was a fairly heavy learning curve for the young players competing against Cornwall’s “high-end” level, but he says the boys improved throughout the day.
“As long as the boys go away smiling and they’ve had a good time playing cricket, that’s it.”
Matt says for a lot of the boys, the Sunday game at Dannevirke Domain was different to what they would normally play on a Saturday morning.
“Just giving them that experience on a grass wicket, which they don’t normally get to play on either, is fantastic.”
He says it’s something Dannevirke can offer that other clubs in the Manawatu can’t.
“We’ve got our own ground, we’ve got our own grass block, we’ve got our own grandstand, and having the facility here in town - it’s a feather in the cap, really.”
Dannevirke Cricket has some history behind it, with decades of it back to the 1940s under the grandstand.
Matt says when it was known as Southern Hawke’s Bay Cricket Board, Dannevirke was the “hub of cricket on this side of the hill”.
“It’s great to be able to keep that sort of tradition going.”
He says having people in the community such as Gordon Kuggeleijn, who has a long association with Dannevirke Cricket, volunteer their time to work behind the scenes was appreciated.
