Towgood star of Umpires Cup

MAINSTAY: Justin Herbert plays a leg-side shot during his innings of 61 against Red Star.PHOTO/ANDREW BONALLACK

First in, second last out ... and just seven runs short of his maiden senior club century.

That was the story for century maker Darren Towgood in Copper Kettle Kuranui Old Boys' convincing 70-run win over Rathkeale College in their Umpires Cup cricket match played on Saturday.

Towgood opened the KOB innings and his was the penultimate wicket to fall with his own total at 93 and his team on a respectable 225. It was Towgood's highest score at senior club level and he showed a good mix of patience and aggression in facing 144 balls and striking eight fours along the way.The only other knocks of any substance for KOB were the 38 provided by Sam Curtis, whose third wicket partnership with Towgood was worth a valuable 70 runs, and Sanjay Patel's 33.

Bowling for Rathkeale College John Ryan finished with 3-32 from his 9.2 overs while those to grab a brace of wickets were K.Fahey (2-33), George Deans (2-51) and Thor Crombie (2-12).

Only four of the Rathkeale batsmen made it into double figures in their innings of 157 with opener Liam Burling clearly the pick of them. His 51 came from 96 balls and he struck five fours and one six. Elliot Mason made 25.

The KOB bowlers shared wickets around: Tony Russo taking 2-21, Jayden Carter 2-18, Nash Patel 2-27 and Sam Curtis 2-21.

Lansdowne defeated arch rivals Red Star by 52 runs in a low scoring match played at the Park Sportsground.

Batting first, Lansdowne struggled through to 153 in 47.2 overs. Opener Justin Herbert was the mainstay with 61 from 89 balls and including six fours and two sixes. Aaron Bidlake chimed in with 35 in the middle order and the only other batsmen to break into double figures was Henry Cameron (13). Spearheading the Red Star attack was S.Mnikina who finished with 4-46 from his 10 overs while Peter Sigvertsen took 3-16 from nine overs.

Red Star got their innings off to a useful start with openers Troy Burling (20) and John Dudley (22) putting on 46 runs for the first wicket but once their partnership was broken it was all downhill from then on. Two wickets actually fell at 46, the third at 48 and the fourth at 56 and after a brief respite the last five wickets went for the addition of only 10 runs, leaving them all out for 101.

It was spinner Jamie Holmes who did the damage of Lansdowne. He more than made amends for the "duck"he had registered when opening the batting by finishing with the superb figures of 6-27 from a full muster of 10 overs. Supporting him was Ford Burr with 3-22.

Greytown skipper Tim Lucas played a key role in his team's 70-run win over Wairarapa College. Greytown batted first and were 42-3 when Lucas came to the crease and his 61 from 89 balls including five fours was the catalyst to them getting through to 203. He and Steve Coleman (37) put on 68 runs for the fifth wicket. Bowling for Wairarapa College Hamish Woolgar took 3-35 and Finlayson 3-25.

Wairarapa College were well placed at 81-3 but their innings folded after that and they were all out for 133. Josh Pepperell (26) and Nathan Elliott (25) were the leading scorers. The Reisima brothers, Gordon and Martin, shone with the ball for Greytown, Gordon taking 3-31 and Martin 3-32. Harry Greenwood , finishing with 3-15.

Short scoreboards were:-

Copper Kettle Kuranui Old Boys 227 (Towgood 93, D.Dingle 3, L.Dingle 0, Curtis 38, S.Patel 23, Russo 9, Carter 19, Glengarry 4, N.Patel 7, Freeman 2, J McDonald not out 0, extras 19; fall of wickets, 16, 16, 86, 130, 142, 173, 194, 209, 225, 227) Mason 10-1-41-1, Ryan 9.2-1-32-3, Fahey 10-0-33-2, Deans 10-0-51-2, O'Reilly 7-1-50-0, Crombie 3-1-12-2) beat Rathkeale College 157 (Burling 51, Davis 3, Morrison 9, Mason 25, McKenzie 9, Caldwell 5, Crombie 17, Payton-Masters 0, Ryan 14, Fahey 8, O'Reilly 10 not out, extras 16; Russo 10-2-21-2, McDonald 6-0-28-1, S.Patel 7-0-37-1, Carter 3-0-18-2, N.Patel 6-1-27-2, Curtis 9-2-21-2) by 70 runs.

Lansdowne 153 (Herbert 61, Holmes 0, Adamson 5, H.Cameron 13, Treseder 7, Bidlake 35, Burr 3, Ball 2, J.Cameron 7 not out, Barrett 4, no name listed 0, extras 16 ; fall of wickets, 6, 30, 52, 85, 97, 111, 115, 140, 146, 153; Karaitiana 10-3-22-1, Jarvis 7-3-20-1, Mnikina 10-3-46-4, Burling 10-1-43-1, Sigvertsen 9-2-16-3) beat Red Star 101 (Burling 20, Dudley 22, Wenden 0, Jarvis 24, Karaitiana 7, French 13, Sigvertsen 0, McCluskey 0, Mnikina 6, Murray 6, Lenz 0 not out, extras 8; fall of wickets, 46, 46, 48, 56, 85, 91, 91, 93, 100, 101; Ball 6-0-25-1, J.Cameron 3-0-26-0, Holmes 10-1-27-6, Burr 7.4-0-22-3) by 52 runs.

Greytown 203 (Speers 17, Kibblewhite 1, Hudson 8, Ross 5, Lyttle 6, Lucas 61, Coleman 37, Greenwood 11, G.Reisima 7, Smith 17, M.Reisima 0 not out, extras 13; fall of wickets, 4, 20, 42, 55, 67, 135, 154, 164, 203, 203; Hook-Sporry 10-1-26-2, Wakeling 10-0-30-0, Woolgar 9.5-0-35-3, Burt 8-1-39-2, Birchall 3-0-16-0, Pepperell 3-0-21-0, Finlayson 5-0-25-0) beat Wairarapa College 133 (Reisima 12, Elliott 25, Peperell 26, Burt 7, Wakeling 2, Hook-Sporry 6, Payne 13, woolgar 6, Finlayson 6, Birchall 18 not out, Crump 0. extras 10; fall of wickets, 37, 46, 81, 86, 87, 94, 106, 112, 130, 133; Smith 6-0-26-0, Coleman 10-3-27-1, G.Reisima 9-1-31-3, M.Reisima 9.3-0-33-3, Greenwood 7-1-15-3) by 70 runs.