Lake Taupo to play in McNaughton Trophy final

GM Painters Lake Taupo Cricket Club 1st XI. Photo/File

There has been a changing of the guard in McNaughton Trophy cricket this season, with two of the youngest clubs affiliated to the Bay of Plenty Cricket Association, to fight out the McNaughton Trophy Final at Blake Park on Sunday.

The origins of the Baywide Reserve grade prize, come from the donation by the McNaughton Family in Te Puke, of a trophy for competition between second tier teams from the Tauranga and Te Puke sub-associations.

A number of years ago, the competition was expanded to include all reserve and B grade sides in Bay of Plenty cricket and is effectively the Baywide Reserve Grade Championship.

This year Lake Taupo CC and R&A Sangha, have won through to contest the 2017 McNaughton Trophy title decider on Sunday.

The Lake Taupo club was formed just this season, with the eventual aspirations of bringing premier cricket back to the Taupo region. They have played by invitation in the Western Bay of Plenty Reserve Grade competition in their inaugural season.

R& A Sangha affiliated to Western Bay of Plenty Cricket around five seasons ago and has been genuine reserve grade contenders in the last few seasons. Twelve months ago, the Sangha XI reached their zenith when they beat Katikati to win the McNaughton prize.

The two 2017 McNaughton Final protagonists reached the title decider in last weekend's McNaughton semi-finals fought out at Fergusson Park.

Lake Taupo, batted first against long time Western Bay Reserve heavyweight Otumoetai Cadets and posted 178/8. Jack Dansie top scored with a hard fought 52 runs for the Taupo side.

While Cadets made a reasonably good start, Taupo bowler Habib Malik asserted his authority and grabbed six wicket for 29 runs, as Cadets were bowled out for 108, to hand the Lake Taupo representatives' a berth in the McNaughton Final.

The Western Bay of Plenty Indian team made the McNaughton final by way of defeating Grasshoppers, who are a Western Bay of Plenty B Grade side. Grasshoppers batted first and posted a respectable target when they were bowled out for 155. Jasper Piper was in good touch with the bat top scoring with 49 runs for Grasshoppers while Dev Sangha took four wickets.

The Sangha XI were made to fight hard for victory losing six wickets on the way. Harkaran Gujral and GS Sandu both produced 34 runs apiece for the victors with Andy Balfour and Ivan Foord returning identical bowling figures of 2/27.

McNaughton Trophy Final at Blake Park Four - 5 March 2017
Lake Taupo CC v R&A Sangha

McNaughton Trophy Semi-Final Results
Lake Taupo CC 178/8 (JD Dansie 52, JW Wiggins 27, AB Batta 22; C Dunn 2/28, T Pamment 2/37) defeated Cadets 108 (H Malik 6/29)
Grasshoppers 155 (J Piper 49, C Schindler 25, D Sangha 4/30) lost to R&A Sangha 159/6 (H Gujral 34, G Sandhu 34, M Singh 30; A Balfour 2/27, I Foord 2/27)