The cricket season has just finished with the Celtic senior team winning the Tweedy Cup two day, the Daily Freightways one day and the inaugural Twenty20 competitions, while Temuka grabbed the runner-up spots in the both the main competitions and Star were runners-up in the Twenty20.

The Celtic club depth was on show when they won the Senior Reserve Grade over Timaru as well as the Presidents Grade, while Star/MVHS took the honours in Second Grade in a thrilling final against the newly formed Temuka team.

In the women’s competition, TGHS won back the trophy which had been missing for a couple of seasons, while in junior cricket, Waihi won the A Grade and Grantlea were deserving winners in B Grade.

When you look through the senior batting averages, you can see why Celtic dominated the season with seven batsmen featuring in the top list while the bowling is a lot more spread out over all the teams in the competition.

Craig Davies understandably leads both the aggregate and averages for batsmen scoring just under 800 runs including four centuries and also features mid table in the bowling with 23 wickets. There were nine centuries this season with Johnny Geddis scoring two including one in the final, a match that saw Dan Laming with 174 make the highest score of the season.

The bowling table was again headed by Kevin Teahen with 42 wickets, but he was a tireless workhorse sending down more overs than anyone else too. Close behind with 39 wickets and well in front with an average of only 10.3 runs per wicket was Glenn Matthews, a new player to the district, and he was also the second most economic behind Dan Laming who only conceded 2.5 runs per over for the season.

*Note: 300 runs or more to qualify

*Note: 18 or more wickets to qualify

Celtic captain Dan Laming led his team to victory over Temuka in the final of the Tweedy Cup after he backed up a superb innings of 174 by taking 3-44 with the ball. This capped off a fine season for Celtic after having already won the Twenty20 and One Day competitions.

The final is played under Hawke Cup rules and conditions and a first innings win is enough to secure the trophy, and after winning the toss Celtic had no hesitation in batting first on the Saturday morning. The plans did not begin well when prolific run scorer Craig Davies was dismissed second ball for a duck, but promoted opener Glenn Matthews and Ryan De Joux soon settled into their job with Matthews scoring at better than a run a ball on his way to 62. De Joux was his usual aggressive self making 38 before the second wicket fell at 55, and Jeremy Liddy helped in another 61 run partnership before both he and Matthews were both back in the pavilion with the score 123-4 and Temuka feeling quite happy with their progress so far.

Dan Laming was joined by his brother James and they slowly but surely set about building a partnership. By the time they went to lunch they had moved the score through to 205 and it began to look like Temuka may spend a long time in the field.

James lost his wicket soon after lunch for 39, but by now Dan was well into his work as he put his worst ever season with the bat behind him and brought up his century. Once he passed the 100 mark, he relaxed further and began to play even more of the shots we are used to seeing and it wasn’t long until he had brought up his 150. Matt Mealings with 27 was a solid partner in another century partnership, but eventually Laming played a tired shot and was caught behind for 174 just as the spectators eagerly anticipated a double century, but importantly, Celtic had now moved to 399-7. Laming played a classic innings with most shots along the ground included 32 fours and two sixes and left the ground amidst hearty applause from the spectators and team mates alike.

Temuka may have been hoping for a declaration after a long day in the field, but Celtic were making sure of this outcome (unless it rained) and continued on with Andy Scott continuing the barrage as he added a quick fire 62 and Sam Carlaw chimed in with an unbeaten 38, until eventually Celtic were all out for 486.

For Temuka the star was Kevin Teahen who put in a herculean effort with the ball, battling cramp and fatigue as he sent down 33 overs and was justifiably rewarded with 7 wickets. Temuka bowled 96 overs and all their bowlers suffered as Celtic scored at more than five an over, with Rory Lorimer the most economic conceding just 29 runs from his ten overs.

Temuka had it all ahead of them and knew their first job was to bat through to stumps for little or no loss of wicket. They began well with Simon Attridge and Adrian Cunningham growing in confidence as they got in and didn’t look troubled. Unfortunately with half an hour until stumps Cunningham received a bouncer from Willie Scott that he tried to hook but as he played the shot continued through to hit his stumps and was given out hit wicket for 28. Willie Stone joined Attridge with the sole purpose of getting through to stumps which they did successfully and would have left the ground reasonably happy at 59-1 overnight.

Dan Laming had Stone caught and bowled early on the second morning and then a terrible mix up as the batsmen looked for three saw Attridge out for 25. This brought the mainstays of the Temuka lineup together as Captain Ritchie Preston joined Johnny Geddis.

They took the score through to 100 when Preston was given out lbw before he had got going and Temuka’s chances looked slim as they still needed to bat out the day to achieve a draw and share the cup.

Geddis then showed his class as he first brought up his fifty and then put the accelerator down as he drove down the ground or pulled or cut and before long he had brought up his 100 off only 114 balls before lunch. He kept Temuka well in the hunt, but needed some support from the other end.

Returning from lunch with a new ball available meant a change of end for James Laming, a decision which would prove crucial as he had Geddis caught in the deep for a brilliant 126 including 88 runs in boundaries. The loss of Geddis when the total was 231 brought about a quick end to the innings as Dan Laming and Glenn Matthews mopped up the tail and Temuka were all out for 239.

The match could have finished then if both captains agree, but Celtic decided to bat a second time to give Davies a chance to set a new Celtic batting record for the season as he only need 28 runs to pass Andrew Buckingham’s 806, but Temuka were determined to deny him, and he was out for 11. Celtic continued on, losing wickets regularly, but eventually sense prevailed and the captains agreed to finish the match with Celtic 109-5. Ritchie Preston took 3-21 and James Laming capped off a useful double to be 30 not out as did Matthews with 23 not out.

The outcome went as predicted with the strong Celtic side backing up their depth on paper with the performance on the park, and coach Bruce Carlaw can take a lot of credit for that, but Temuka also capped off a good year making two finals and certainly fought gamely as they tried to cause an upset. Both teams ground fielding was outstanding, although Temuka will rue a few dropped chances, but the match was played in a good spirit and certainly showed what can be done on a good pitch.

Scoreboard

After more than 30 years in club cricket, John Threlkeld still loves to be in the middle of the action.

Previously involved in cricket in North Canterbury, Threlkeld moved to South Canterbury in 1980, and since has held a multitude of roles within the game.

Describing himself as a “pretty average all-rounder” during his playing days, a willingness to stay involved in the game made him become an umpire 20 years ago.

Threlkeld said being in charge out on the pitch could be a thankless and tiring job at times, but he enjoyed it.

“I still like being involved in the game, and seeing the game up close.”

The changes Threlkeld had seen in cricket over the years had been minimal, but significant, with bats being lighter than ever and pitches on the improve.

Threlkeld said his proudest moment in cricket was his involvement with junior cricket, when he was coach of the South Canterbury team which won the South Island primary school tournament in 1996, 1997 and 2006

“There’s been some good cricketers from here.”

Former Black Cap Craig Cumming and former Otago representative Jordan Shead were coached by Threlkeld during their early years. He said watching young players improve their technique and grow as players was the most enjoyable part of coaching.

Threlkeld said he had no problem with technology being used to make sure the umpires make the right decision.

“At the end of the day, umpires aren’t going to get every decision correct.”

Threlkeld said he would continue to be involved in the game for as long as possible.

“As long as I still feel I am contributing, then I’ll be around.”

The end of season prizegiving will be held in the Speights Ale House on Thursday, April 15th 2010 commencing at 7.00pm.

All cricketers and supporters are welcome.

No charge.

Temuka secured the second Tweedy Cup final spot after beating Geraldine outright over the weekend, a good comeback after being 37 runs behind on the first innings. For Temuka it will be their second final against Celtic this season and a chance to redeem their loss in the one day final last weekend, while for Celtic it will be their first appearance in the final since they last won the Tweedy Cup in the 2006-2007 season.

Geraldine’s first innings lead put Temuka in a position of having to win outright to gain enough points to keep Star from pushing them back into third place, but with relations between the teams this season in the local derby strained at best, Geraldine were certainly not going to do Temuka any favours.

The rainfall during the week meant that preparation of the pitch had been limited and it wasn’t long until the ball was going through the top, but Geraldine began reasonably well to be 60-2 at one stage before a batting collapse saw them dismissed for 104 after Kevin Teahen picked up his best return of the season with the ball taking 7-43 and leaving Temuka requiring 143 for victory.

Not an unsurmountable task, but with the pitch favouring the bowlers, this match eventually went to the wire. At one stage Temuka were 80-6 despite innings of 31 from Adrian Cunningham and 21 from Johnny Geddis and their chances looked grim, but a good 8th wicket partnership between Simon Attridge with 36 not out and Willie Stone (8) kept Temuka in the game, as Attridge continued his good form from the previous weekend in his new lower order batting position.

However the tension was not abated when Stone was dismissed and No 11 Nathan McNicol joined Attridge in the middle with four runs still required. McNicol didn’t let the team down holding up his end and a jubilant Temuka side no doubt enjoyed their trip home with Simon Attridge and Kevin Teahen justifiably holding court.

Timaru put up a much better fight in their second innings against Star, despite battling the bowlers and the pitch, which while losing a lot of its pop from the previous week, managed to bring the downfall of a number of batsmen this time ‘lbw via a wormburner’. Jeremy Lane took the most advantage of the conditions finishing with 5-52, his best haul this season while Craig Hinton picked up 4-60.

Hayden Butler, the Timaru Captain lead the fightback playing a really fine knock for 79, an innings that would have easily been worth a hundred on a good deck, but in the end he got himself out caught inside the long-off boundary. Josh Smallridge chimed in towards the end with 20 and Timaru with 150 had at least made Star bat a second time.

Needing only four runs to win, the Star batsmen made hard work of it taking four overs and losing a wicket along the way, but they did finish their final match with Ashbury Park as their home ground with an outright win, and will be hoping their new grounds next season at Mountainview High School bring about equally rewarding results. This means that despite Star’s efforts with an outright win over Timaru, they remain in third and will not get the chance to improve on last season’s runners-up tag.

In the Waimate versus Celtic match, Waimate could be forgiven for thinking the trip to Timaru was a waste of time after they declared immediately after gaining first innings points in the hope that Celtic may at least make a game of it, since Celtic were in a position to manipulate who would be their final opponent.

Waimate had an outside chance of making the final if they could somehow dismiss Celtic a second time, or if Celtic made a sporting declaration and Waimate chased down the required runs, but Celtic set about batting for the rest of the day and the captains then agreed to call the match off early. In hindsight, if Celtic were not interested in making a match of it, an agreement to let Waimate bat on the previous weekend and secure the seven runs required for first innings points may have saved both teams from wasting a day.

Next weekend finals in all grades will be played over the Saturday and Sunday as another season draws to a close, and the senior final at Aorangi will be well worth a visit.

Honours Board:
K Teahen 7-43
J Lane 5-52
H Butler 79
J Sew Hoy 62*

Scoresheets

South Canterbury’s three junior representative cricket teams played their counterparts from Dunedin Metro in matches in Dunedin on Sunday.

The A game was a high-scoring affair, notable for Chris Hogan scoring his maiden century in reaching 103 not out.

Winning the toss and batting, South Canterbury reached an imposing 256 for five declared.

With South Canterbury at 49 for four, Matt McKenzie and Hogan combined to add 98 runs for the fifth wicket before McKenzie fell for 43.

William Carter then battled intelligently for 32 not out as a further 109 runs were added for the sixth wicket in 50 minutes.

In reply, Dunedin Metro got off to a fast start with opener James Preston scoring 67 before being cleverly caught and bowled by Lawrence Darling.

Metro folded to be all out for 200 with Carter having a good double, taking three for 25 off 12.1 overs. Also claiming wickets were Darling, with two for eight; A Harvey, one for two; and C Bradley, one for 41.

Three run-outs aided South Canterbury’s cause.

It was a positive start for South Canterbury A but an improvement will be needed in some of the bowling.

The South Canterbury Development team performed well to restrict Dunedin Metro Blue to 142 for eight off their 40 overs.

Wickets were shared among the South Canterbury bowlers with Wyatt McAughtrie two for 17, Sam Brosnahan two for 17, Johnny Fitzpatrick two for 18, Liam Cooper one for seven and Tom Patterson one for 19.

In reply South Canterbury Development were all out for 99 with only McAughtrie’s 41 runs and Burns Mills’ 12 runs, reaching double figures.

The year five and six match saw Dunedin Metro reach 173 all out off their 40 overs, with Tedd Grigg’s three for 26 and Ben Aicken’s three for 38 doing the damage for South Canterbury.

Also claiming wickets were Stuart Williams, Isaac Kinney and Shaun Rooney with one each.

South Canterbury were dismissed for 104 runs with Tim Hepburn top-scoring with 29.

Craig Davies was again the star of the show hitting a boundary behind square to bring up his hundred and the winning runs for Celtic in a tight final to the Daily Freightways One Day Trophy played at Aorangi Oval.

The battle started right from the first over when a shorter delivery from Glenn Matthews rapped Temuka opening batsman Michael Geddis on the helmet. Three balls later he was gone, and Matthews followed this up removing Les Humphris for 1 and Johnny Geddis for 2 as Temuka slumped to 16-3, and even some of their most ardent followers had a look of gloom about them, but Captain Ritchie Preston soon lifted their spirits.

Preston battled on doggedly and while his partners came and went, they all contributed some time in the middle as Preston worked the ball around or off his pads to keep the score building. Runs were always at a premium especially during the middle stages as Jeremy Liddy and James Laming both bowled good lines, keeping the ball up and utilizing the swing they were able to get. Liddy took 3-23 from his 9 overs while Laming was even more miserly taking 1-16.

Celtic used 9 bowlers showing the depth in their team, but when Simon Attridge joined Preston with the score 92-7 things still looked grim. Together they added 51 runs during which time Preston brought up his half century, then when Attridge was out for 9, Paul Coles came in and played a great little cameo of 22 as the score progressed to 177 before Matthews claimed his fourth victim in a great display of fast bowling. Dillon Lees threw the bat at everything and scored another 10 from the final over and Temuka ended with a competitive total of 187 on the back of the 74 not out by Preston.

Kevin Teahen removed Ryan De Joux without scoring in the first over and suddenly the Temuka fielders were looking really inspired as the team chatter and enthusiasm was plain to see. Paul Coles was bowling well from the other end, but Davies and Liddy now settled down taking the time to get in. Liddy made use of the fielding restrictions with a couple of aerial drives and was looking quite settled when dismissed lbw by Coles for 16. Dan Laming’s season continued with no luck as he was given out caught behind soon after.

Some tremors could be seen in the Celtic lineup as the pressure came on, and were further heightened after James Laming also became an lbw victim and then when Coles bowled Matthews without scoring, Celtic still had plenty to do at 92-5.

Throughout all this Davies had batted patiently at the other end, only playing at deliveries he had to, and waiting for the bad ball which he more often than not sent to the boundary. While he was in Temuka were always going to struggle to win, but Davies main problem was to find a partner who would also hang around.

He found this partner in Matt Mealings. Mealings played some nice shots as well as a couple of streaky shots, but generally he was sound on his way to 36 not out, and in the end it became a question of whether Davies would reach his century before the winning target was reached.

Celtic supporters roared at Mealings to not score any more, so he promptly rocketed another ball to the boundary, and finally it came down to Celtic needing two runs to win and Davies four for his ton, meaning he had to score a boundary. Preston brought himself on for the ‘Coup de Gras’ and his first delivery was called wide, but Davies got onto the next ball flicking it to leg for his 16th boundary and bringing up a deserved century, and he was soon swamped by jubilant team mates, as Celtic picked up the second leg of the treble of trophies they are chasing this season.

Scoreboard

The first century in seven seasons by a Star batsman after Paul Arkinstall scored 104 helped move Star into an outright winning position on the first day against Timaru, a result they must achieve to have a chance of overtaking Temuka who currently hold second place and gain the final spot to play Celtic in the final of the Tweedy Cup.

Star also need other results go in their favour too, and will be happy with Geraldine who have followed the script by picking up a first innings lead over Temuka and so far denying Temuka any further points, but with a full day’s play left in all the matches, a lot can still happen.

Arkinstall’s first senior century in South Canterbury was a typical mix of aggression and defense and included 13 fours and three sixes. The mainstay of the Star innings, his best support came from Andrew McRae (43) in an 87 run partnership for the fourth wicket, but after their wickets fell, Star did not offer much more resistance and were all out in the 50th over for 230.

Craig Hinton and Jeremy Lane were straight into their work on a pitch that had showed some variable bounce, and supported by some good fielding soon had Timaru in deep trouble, and at 52-9 may have been envisaging a day off next weekend, but No’s 10 and 11 for Timaru had other ideas as they showed their batsmen how it was done adding 31 runs before Timaru were all out for 83. Star only used the two bowlers and good spells rewarded Hinton with 5-39 and Lane 4-41.

Star now faced the dilemma of batting again and earning some batting bonus points, or enforcing the follow-on and hoping that other results would pan out for them. They decided to play the match as they would normally and leave things they couldn’t control to fate and put Timaru back in. Timaru reversed the order hoping the form shown by Mike Turner and Sam Wilson would help them to a better start, and while Turner scored 12 to go with his 21 earlier, Wilson was out first ball, and when bad light stopped play Timaru at 38-3 have a lot of work to do next week to save the game.

A fine innings of 96 by Guy Metcalf batting at No 6 helped Geraldine to first innings points over Temuka but with a lead of only 37 runs this match has a long way to go, especially if Kevin Teahen is on song for Temuka again after taking 6-51 in the first innings.

To further complicate matters, Waimate look like gaining a first innings lead over Celtic despite James Laming notching up his second senior century (104*) after Celtic had been 37-5 at one stage before making 220-6 when the declaration came.

In reply Waimate’s Nathan Sew Hoy was on target to score his first senior ton too, before being dismissed for 86, and at stumps Waimate had moved to 217-6 with Jason Sew Hoy unbeaten on 48 and five overs left before the compulsory declaration. Despite this good showing, it is hard to imagine Waimate knocking Celtic over a second time and leaving themselves enough time to score the required runs, but cricket is a funny game?

Score Sheets

Honours Board:
J Laming 104*
P Arkinstall 104
G Metcalf 96
N Sew Hoy 86
K Teahen 6-51
C Hinton 5-39
J Liddy 51

While Celtic notched up their fourth consecutive outright victory in the Tweedy Cup, it was Temuka with a convincing win by eight wickets over Waimate who leapt out of the log jam for second place and appear best placed with one round to play to meet Celtic in the final of the Tweedy Cup as well as meeting them in the final next Sunday for the One Day Trophy.

Another final spot would cap off a great season for the Temuka club who only last season were really battling to put 11 players on the park, but this season in their 125th Jubilee year have made a prominent return and their new Second Grade team is also in the hunt for a final spot having only lost one match all year.

Temuka began the day still needing 53 runs from eight overs to gain first innings points and Richard Opie continued his form from the previous week taking his score from 47 not out through to 79. Temuka managed to obtain first innings points with a ball to spare before the compulsory declaration after 50 overs.

On a high from their batting, Temuka soon had Waimate in deep trouble three down with no runs on the board. Waimate were without their captain, but replacement Hadley Johns, just back from India filled his shoes admirably scoring 61 and helping Waimate add some respectability to the score, eventually succumbing for 159.

Temuka made no race of it as they scored the 156 runs needed for the loss of only two wickets with Johnny Geddis again leading the way for his team with an unbeaten 70 while Ritchie Preston added 43 not out to his 4-38 earlier with the ball.

Timaru made a much better effort on day two in their match against a Celtic side that was still not at full strength as three young players were blooded, but their effort was thwarted by Craig Davies as he continued to add to his already fine season. He scored 64 runs, more than double his next best team mates including a partnership of 82 with Jeremy Liddy, and newcomer Jacob Naylor had a good debut scoring a cultured 26.

Celtic were eventually all out for 224 with Josh Smallridge picking up 4-40 to go with his three wickets in the first innings, but with a target of 271 Timaru were always going to battle.

They began well with openers Robbie Rankin and Gerald Piddock both scoring 37 in an opening stand of 73, but by now Davies was bowling and it didn’t take him long to find his length, and along with good flight and spin soon had all the Timaru batsmen in trouble. Supported by good fielding and three lbw decisions in his favour he bowled unchanged for 16 overs and took 7-76, his best senior performance and the best bowling performance by anyone in senior cricket this season, and although Pete Grady (26), Grant Bishop (32) and Richard Booth (26*) kept Timaru in the hunt for a long time, they were eventually dismissed for 195, 76 runs short with 12 overs play still available.

In the third match Star needed an outright over Geraldine to keep in touch on the points table, while two outrights in the remaining rounds would give Geraldine a real chance of making the final two years running.

The return of Richard Bruce and Matt Barnes helped Geraldine to secure first innings points and they promptly declared, hoping to either dismiss Star cheaply or more realistically to be set a reasonable run chase giving both teams a chance to gain valuable points.

Star batted well in their second innings with Phil McGregor contributing 54 to an 82 run opening partnership with Chris Anders. Paul Arkinstall added a further 29 before Todd Elliotte got in on the act too with 57 and when the declaration came, Geraldine needed to score 219 off 36 overs at just over 6 an over.

Geraldine openers Michael King and Barnes were on target when a brilliant catch by Arkinstall removed Barnes with the total 52 in the eight over. Richard Bruce continued the chase on his way to 58 but it was the “stumped Anders bowled Elliotte” combination which took three wickets in the middle to slow the run chase and eventually Geraldine finished 179-6, still 40 runs short in a difficult chase and the match was drawn.

Honours Board:
C Davies 7-76 & 64
R Opie 79
J Geddis 70*
H Johns 61
R Bruce 58
T Elliotte 57
P McGregor 54

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