CRICKET - Northland claims Under-14 tournament honours

NORTHLAND'S win on the final day of the Northern Districts under-14 cricket championships confirmed them as unofficial tournament winners.
Northland were the only team with four wins from four games at the rain-interrupted championships.
Hamilton and Counties-Manukau finished second with three wins each. The teams they lost to, Poverty Bay and Bay of Plenty Coastlands respectively, were both beaten by Northland.
Friday's games were played on artificial pitches, and despite injuries to three bowlers, Northland managed to bowl the Lakelands side out for 117.
Liam O'Sullivan bowled on the spot to take three wickets for 20, while Ben Smith, Flynn Hart, Cam Pilmer, Fraser Seymour and Thomas Ridgley claimed one wicket each.
This was the only time any team passed 100 against Northland and on all four days Northland bowled their opposition out in less than 50 overs. Northland's reply to Lakelands started shakily, with Daniel Ridgley caught from a lifting delivery, Jacob Cherrington caught down the leg side and Ben Smith run out before 10 runs were on the board.
Cam Pilmer and Dylan Jakicevich stemmed the flow of wickets but when Jakicevich fell to make it 38 for four, the game was in the balance.
However, typifying the team performance of the week, James Wyatt and Pilmer, neither of whom had succeeded with the bat in the earlier games, calmly got on top of the bowling and knocked off the 80 further runs needed to complete a win by six wickets.
In a departure from previous seasons, when two Northern Districts sides were selected, no tournament team was named at the closing ceremony. Instead, a Northern Districts squad of 15 will shortly be named to prepare for two one-day games against Auckland late in January.
In addition, a squad of wicketkeepers and spin bowlers will also be named for specialist winter coaching clinics.