Cricket: Cobham club keen to grow schoolboy game

Secondary School team's Nathan Parker bowls to Cobham batsman Richard Johnston in the T20 cricket match at Cobham Oval between a Northland Secondary Schools team and the Cobham CC.

Cobham Cricket Club's directive to grow schoolboy cricket has begun. Cobham played the Northland Secondary Schools team (NSS) in a Twenty20 game at Cobham Oval on Friday last week.

In the club's latest newsletter, chairman Brett Robinson outlined the club's objectives to "nurture and foster cricket in Northland, particularly at secondary school level, by engaging in regular fixtures with these schools".

Robinson said the club was focused on assisting cricket in Northland, both financially and physically and aimed to keep former players and administrators vitally interested and involved.

The Northland secondary schools team was made up of 16 senior students from six schools. From this team, four players have been nominated for the Northern Districts composite team travelling to Gisborne on December 9 to play in the Northern Districts senior secondary schools tournament from December 10-14.

In the game, NSS batted first and made 129 for 9 off 20 overs with Whangārei Boys High School's Luke Trigg top-scoring with 33, supported by Max Turner and Kian Bird scoring 29 and 21 respectively. Darren Goodwin stood out for Cobham, taking 4 for 25 off four overs. Five other bowlers took a wicket apiece.

In response, Cobham chased down the total with one ball to spare, losing only three wickets in the process of scoring 130 after 19.5 overs. Todd Skudder top-scored for Cobham with 48, followed by Richard Johnston with 35. WBHS's Michael Krige was the best of the bowlers, picking up 2 for 19 from his four overs.

Robinson said the club had plans for a triangular tournament which included Kerikeri High School and Whangārei Boys High School beginning in February next year.