David Armitt took centre stage as Whangarei Boys High School were competitive but ultimately unsuccessful in both of their Twenty20 matches at the school.
In their fifth round match on Saturday, the Zest Insurance WBHS first XI took on City and got off to a flying start with openers Armitt (44) and Kashmir Harypursat (22) putting on 64 before Harypursat fell.
Armitt and Sam Clotworthy saw the total past 100, before Armitt was run out. Clotworthy (39 not out) and Ben Smith (23 not out) finished the innings well to post 152 for two wickets.
Brad Lang was the only City bowler to claim a wicket, while Tim King conceded just 20 runs from his four overs.
Jamie Morgan and Chris Page got City off to a quick start too but they were both dismissed by two good pieces of fielding by Armitt.
He caught Page on the boundary and then ran out Morgan as he attempted a second run. Armitt also bowled an economical opening spell.
With off-spinner Alex Tunstall bowling tidily and the fielding sharp, the school side seemed to be in control. However, a fine partnership between Ian Page (51) and Harry Darkins (48 not out) kept City in the game. When Page went, the game was evenly poised but two spilled catches and several misfields left City needing two from the final delivery.
Darkins struck the ball into the on-side and partner Sam Cloutman completed the second run at the bowler's end just before the bails were removed.
In their second game of the day they hosted Onerahi-Central. The visiting openers Craig Russell (32) and Jordan Antunovich (24) gave their side a good start, with Dewayne Bowden threatening to take the game out of the school's reach as he went on a boundary spree.
Once again Armitt was involved in reining in the threat, running 30 metres to take a great catch just inside the boundary to remove the all rounder for 30.
High School got back into the game by limiting Onerahi to just 39 runs from the last nine overs. Alex Tunstall bowled his off-spinners to take three for 20, while Ben Smith and Clotworthy also claimed cheap wickets to keep Onerahi to 137/7 in their 20 overs.
High School lost a wicket in the first over and two more wickets fell quickly to the bowling of Hamish Chambers, both of them sharp catches to wicketkeeper, Chris Harrison. Smith and Matthew Lobb stemmed the flow of wickets but after Smith fell for 36 the asking rate became too great. Lobb continued on to 25 not out. He had Alex Tunstall with him on 18 at the close but the target was still 22 runs away at the end of the 20th over.
Chambers finished with three for 25 and BJ Howe took two for 18 as Onerahi-Central made it two wins from two for the day. They earlier beat Kaipara Flats with Bowden top scoring with 41.
Kaipara then came back to win a thriller against Maungakaramea at the domain in the afternoon match.
Saturday was a much better day for Kamo, as they managed to post 123/8 thanks to 41 by Sam Walker and 31 to Rhys Farrand at Maungakaramea. In reply, the home side were all out for 93 with Ryan Smith taking 3-15.
In the afternoon, Kamo had City in all sorts of bother, dismissing them for 88 with Kurtis Cherrington and Richie McPherson both taking three wickets at Kensington Park.
Unfortunately for them they choked in the chase, ending up 14 runs short despite Cherrington scoring 25 and Logan Miller 24.