Knight returns to help City side

Joseph Yovich went back to playing "grassroots" club cricket, fronting for his City team in the first round of the premier grade two day competition against Onerahi Central at Kensington Park.
Having not played for City since the beginning of the season, Yovich, who was in Whangarei with the Northern Knights preparing for their one day match against Wellington at Cobham Oval yesterday, decided to give training a miss, and head to Kensington Park with his club side instead.
Any game time was beneficial, especially as he had not played for the Knights in their first few rounds of the domestic one day competition, due to coach Grant Bradburn rotating the large Northern Districts squad. Yovich said he was looking forward to playing at club level with his teammates, after a long absence on the road with the Knights.
He made his presence felt on the pitch, top-scoring for City who batted second, on 62 (not out), along with Harry Darkins, on 60 (not out) at stumps. The batsmen put together a good partnership which saw them pass Onerahi's first innings total of 117. They made some big shots, each hitting seven boundaries and a six to help their side to 179-5 in 49 overs at the end of day one.
Onerahi applied early pressure to City with the ball, and kept their fielding and bowling tight. Will Johnston and Josh Matthews claimed two wickets each, while Sean Doel took one.
City will go into bat next Saturday with five wickets in hand, with Onerahi looking to take some early wickets to restrict City to an achievable target in their second innings.
At Kamo, the hosts went into bat against Whangarei Boys High School after winning the toss. Aside from Curtis Cherrington, 31, and Jamie Millar, 28 (not out), the rest of the order were quickly dismissed by Henry Cooper, who took three wickets for 27 runs, Tom Herman 3-28 and Ben Williams 2-24, restricting Kamo to 134.
The game took a quirky twist when one of the Boys' High players did not show for the match, and Williams' Dutch girlfriend stepped up to the mark and filled in as a substitute fielder for the day.
WBHS went into bat and passed Kamo's target to make 179-1, thanks to Jordan Antunovich's 78 (not out), Cooper 60 (not out), and Bradley Kneebone's 26 runs. The schoolboys are looking strong with a lead of 45 with one day remaining.
Meanwhile, Kaipara Flats, who have dominated the premier division to date, travelled to Maungakaramea.
Maungakaramea posted 256 on a slow wicket over a lengthy 106.3 overs spell of batting.
Nearly all of the order reached double figures, which was pleasing considering the batsmen were having a hard time timing the ball from the Kaipara offspinners, Maungakaramea's James Merry said.
Dean Child top-scored for the hosts, plugging away to reach 57 off 144 balls.
Kaipara went into bat for nine overs and day one of the round ended with Raymond Beamish and Kevin Forde at the crease on 12 (not out) and 29 (not out) respectively.
Day two of round one in the premier grade two day competition continues next Saturday.