Sam Robinson’s 81* for Timaru was in vain.
Star, Celtic and Temuka all recorded victories in the opening round of the senior club competition on Saturday.
Three entertaining matches were played with all six teams in the competition showing signs of positivity throughout the games.
Pleasant Point showed their decision to make the step up to senior level was the right one with a spirited showing in their opening round fixture against Star at Mountainview High School.
Despite suffering a six-wicket loss in what was their first match at senior level, there’s certainly plenty of positives the side can take from it.
Opening the batting, Tim Bell made a brisk 35, which included opening his shoulders and sending the ball over the boundary on a couple of occasions.
Fellow top order batsman Richard Stowell and Latham Gibb fell cheaply before Tim Leonard restored some pride into the innings.
With the team 56-4, a quick finish looked on the cards, but a fighting 32 from Leonard helped get the side through to 97 before he departed.
Brad Tegellaars, batting at No 7 rescued the innings somewhat for the visiting side as he scored 39 and with the help of Bailey Dryden (19) they put on 60 runs for the sixth wicket before the former was dismissed by Star left-armer Chris Hyde.
As the innings looked like it could sneak away from Star and they could be chasing more than 200, captain Craig Hinton reintroduced himself into the attack and picked up the final three wickets to finish with outstanding figures of 4 – 8 off 7.5 overs.
Star then set about their chase in positive fashion with Phil McGregor hitting an early four and fellow opener Adam Fahey showing plenty of positives early on before deciding to leave a ball that pitched in line and crashed into middle and off stump.
Another couple of quick wickets from the Point bowlers had Star teetering at 47-3 before McGregor and South African allrounder Jacques Marais put on a 69-run partnership to effectively win the game for Star.
McGregor was dismissed for 32 with the score at 116, but Hamish Dickson joined Marais as the pair put on a 50-run partnership in quick time to see the side home with Marais unbeaten on 68.
Pleasant Point captain Cameron Lundie said it was a good first-up showing by his team. “We did well, but we need to be more patient when we are batting” he said. “I felt we were 40 runs short of a good score and we will focus in the coming weeks on batting out our overs.”
He said it was good for his players to see how to construct an innings.
“We just need guys to knuckle down and value their wicket more, over time we will improve, but yesterday was a good start.”
Meanwhile, the match at Celtic saw the home side defeat Waimate by 45 runs thanks to 72 from James Laming, an elegant 53 from Andy Scott and 26 from Dan Laming in their 215 all out.
Waimate’s Alan Reid was the star with the ball, claiming 4 – 27 off his nine overs.
In reply, Waimate mustered only 169, with George Morgan top-scoring with 35.
Sam Carlaw had the ball on a string, claiming 5 – 16 off nine overs with his left-arm orthodox spin and Tom Pavletich took 3 – 31.
Dan Lamig was tight, conceding just 12 runs off his nine overs. He bowled six consecutive maidens and gave up his first run on his 37th delivery.
Waimate captain Glen Drake said a couple of dropped chances proved crucial in the outcome.
Temuka defeated Timaru in a high scoring match at Ashbury Park.
Temuka made 251 – 8 off their 45 overs with Nick Horsley (66), Dillon Lees (58) and Phil Lill (54) among the runs. Alex Lankeshwar was Timaru’s best bowler with two wickets.
Timaru were bundled out for 190 with Sam Robinson’s 81 not out in vain. Prabodha Arthavidu scored 36.