CRICKET - Rep players' class

City rolled out their big guns on Saturday to decimate Onerahi's challenge and establish themselves as one of the early pacesetters in the Whangarei and Districts one-day cricket competition.
A flowing century by Northland batsman Bert Horner was backed up by a superb spell of pace bowling by Northern Districts' Joey Yovich to give City a rousing 208-run victory against their old rivals at Cobham Oval.
Horner was in attacking mode almost from the start but the slow outfield meant he had to work fairly hard for his century. He and Brad Chard punished the Onerahi attack with an opening stand of 115, before Chard was dismissed for 59.
With an excellent score on the horizon, the rest of the City batsmen attacked the Onerahi bowlers while Horner moved steadily towards his century, finally reaching three figures with 10 overs remaining.
He was run out for 109 by a direct hit on the stumps as he tried to push the scoring along, allowing Dean Potter and Kurt Wilson to take over the scoring and see City to 277 in their 50 overs.
The Onerahi batsmen had no answer to Yovich's pace as he knocked the stuffing out of their chase by taking the first six wickets cheaply. The ND bowler showed the batsmen the benefits of his early season conditioning and stint playing club cricket in Sydney.
He knocked over the first two wickets before Onerahi had 10 runs on the board but it was a hat-trick that was the high point. He encouraged opener Nick Breslin to chip him benignly to Wilson at mid-on, before having Devon Birchall caught at gully. The final ball of the over saw Brendon McLeod edging a perfect length delivery to the wicket-keeper, to give Yovich his hat-trick and his fifth wicket.
The closest match of the first round of premier grade one-day games was between champions Maungakaramea and Bledisloe on the artificial surface at Maungakaramea.
Maungakaramea batted first and posted a good total of 245 thanks largely to a well-crafted innings of 109 by Northland's Ben Cochrane. He combined with the club's new professional Jason Morgan, a returning local who has been contracted by Northland Cricket to coach over the summer, to put together an important partnership of 74 that helped them toward their total.
In reply, Bledisloe were always in the game and already look stronger than last year with Andy Thompson back in the side after playing for Maungakaramea last season.
He and Blake Richardson got the chase off to a good start before the Maungakaramea bowlers broke through. Duncan Robertson (58) and Will Smart (25) re-established the chase in the middle order before Maungakaramea eventually dismissed the visitors for 205 in the 38th over. John Child was the leading wicket taker with four for 37.
The game between Whangarei Boys' High School and Kaipara Flats was another match that was dominated by representative players.
Kaipara's unwelcoming bowling attack made it tough going for the visitors and High School were all out for 100, with opener Rory Darkins hanging around for most of the innings to top score with 31.
ND batsman Brad Wilson took four wickets for 19 runs and then turned around and scored 52 not out in the successful chase. He was accompanied for most of the innings by ND captain James Marshall, who was dismissed by Sean Doel a couple of runs short of overhauling High School's total.