Boys' High claim cup

Whangarei Boys' High School's cricketing skills were on show this week at Kensington Park as they won the Glackin Cup.

The quadrangular 50-over tournament for Year 9 and 10 boys has been contested by Rangitoto College, Westlake Boys' High School, Kelston Boys' High School and Whangarei Boys' High School since 1998.

Whangarei Boys' easily accounted for Kelston early in the tournament, with captain Matt Lobb making 66 and wicketkeeper Finn Trimble undefeated on 65 out of a total of 249 for seven. Kelston struggled to make it past 100 with medium-pacer Connor Dyke putting in a dominating performance to four for 20.

In their next game, Boys' High completed a come-from-behind win (in what proved to effectively be the final) over Rangitoto with an over to spare.

Opening bowlers Matt Lobb and Christian Nitsche took five wickets between them to have Rangitoto in disarray at 31 for five. However, the bowling and fielding became ragged as Rangitoto recovered to post 209 for nine wickets.

Whangarei lost both openers cheaply before Lobb and Chamodh Peiris stemmed the fall of wickets and rebuilt the innings.

When Peiris fell for 38, 140 runs were still needed from just 20 overs, with Lobb following soon after, the task looked too steep.

Nitsche had other ideas as he raced to 53 not out form a series of cleanly-struck shots, and Finn Trimble jumped in with a quickfire 25. Valuable contributions from Jayden McNabb and Matt Kingi enabled the home team to win with an over to spare.

Round 1: WBHS 249/7 (Matthew Lobb 66, Finn Trimble 65 n.o., Chamodh Peiris 30, Sam Hart 14); beat Kelston BHS 101 (Connor Dyke 4/20, Matt Kingi 2/8, Christian Nitsche 2/21); Rangitoto College 176/9 beat Westlake BHS 127.

Round 2: Rangitoto College 209/9 (Matthew Lobb 3/25, Christian NItsche 3/48, Austyn Mills 2/34); lost to WBHS 210/7 (Christian Nitsche 53 n.o., Matthew Lobb 40, Chamodh Peiris 38, Finn Trimble 25); Westlake BHS 233/9 beat Kelston BHS 106.

Round 3: Abandoned due to rain.

Batsman of the tournament: Matthew Lobb (Whangarei).