Curtis helps OBs into semis

ON TARGET: Sean Jarvis, excellent bowling figures for Red Star.

Copper Kettle Kuranui Old Boys completed a good weekend's work and basically booked themselves a semifinal spot in the process, when they scored a 64-run win over Red Star in their Umpire's Cup senior men's cricket match on Sunday.

This victory followed a 70-run win over Rathkeale College the previous day and showcased the value of the experienced Sam Curtis in both the batting and bowling departments.

It was Curtis who top scored with 55 when Kuranui Old Boys recovered from a poor start, which had them struggling at 29-2 to make a respectable 179-9 in their 50 overs.

Curtis faced 75 balls and struck three fours and two sixes and was involved in a crucial 71-run partnership for the third wicket with Luke Dingle, whose 49 came off 85 balls and included six fours. Adding spice later in the innings was Hayden Speirling, who raced through to 21 off just nine balls. He smacked two sixes and one four.

All six of the Red Star bowlers used were economical enough, with medium pacer Sean Jarvis producing the excellent figures of 4-30 from his 10 overs. Nick Karaitiana took 2-27 and Peter Sigvertsen 2-36.

Red Star lost opener Harry Clinton-Baker early but a 46-run partnership for the second wicket between Troy Burling and Richard French steadied the ship. However, once that was broken there was little further resistance and they were all out for 115. Burling top scored with 43. He faced 60 balls and hit four fours. Jarvis (21) and Karaitiana (18) were the only other batsmen to reach double figures.

Again it was Curtis who took the limelight for Kuranui Old Boys. He was the sixth bowler used and he finished with 4-3 from 7.1 overs, five of which were maidens. Impressive too was Sanjay Patel who took 4-31 from 10 overs.

Short scoreboard:

Kuranui Old Boys 179-9 (Towgood 8, D Dingle 8, L Dingle 49, Curtis 55, Glengarry 19, S Patel 3, N Patel 5 not out, Goodin 0, Speirling 21, Lock 1, Mountcastle 1 not out, extras 9; fall of wickets, 11, 29, 100, 136, 148, 152, 152, 176, 178, 199; Karaitiana 9-1-27-2, Jarvis 10-3-30-4, Mnikina 7-1-23-0, Sigvertsen 8-1-36-2, Wilson 6-1-25-0, Burling 10-1-37-0) beat Red Star 115 (Clinton-Baker 0, Burling 43, French 9, Jarvis 21, Karaitiana 18, Wenden 1, Oldfield 0, Wilson 2, Sigvertsen 0, Mnikina 4, McCluskey 0 not out, extras 17; fall of wickets, 6, 52, 65, 96, 102, 102, 109, 109, 114, 115; Speirling 6-1-18-1, Goodin 5-0-28-0, S Patel 10-1-31-4, Mountcastle 4-0-17-0, N Patel 10-5-14-0, Curtis 7.1-5-3-4) by 64 runs.

Greytown and Lansdowne, both of whom are assured of semifinal berths, also met on Sunday and the expected close tussle eventuated, Greytown winning by nine runs.

The southerners batted first and their score of 184-9 was mainly due to the contributions from three of their most experienced campaigners, Steve Coleman (62), Seth Rance (37) and Tim Lucas (28). Medium pacers Ford Burr and Calvin Ball did most of the damage for Lansdowne, Burr taking 3-23 and Ball 3-44.

Lansdowne too looked in dire straits when they were 33-3 but they recovered well through the efforts of Henry Cameron (64) and Alex Treseder (38), who put on 106 runs for the fourth wicket. Unfortunately for Lansdowne, however, their "tail" failed to wag and their last six wickets fell for the addition of only 45 runs, leaving them all out for 175.

The ability to maintain a consistent line and length paid rich dividends for Greytown medium pacer Brian James, who finished with 4-23, while Seth Rance took 2-21 and Daniel Haxton 2-26.

Greytown lead the Umpire's Cup list with 18pts, followed by Lansdowne 15, Kuranui Old Boys 10, Red Star and Wairarapa College 5 and Rathkeale College 0. The semifinals are scheduled for December 14.