Robbie Barry on his way to a score of 19 for Temuka against Waimate at Aorangi Oval.
On a day full of stop/starts the weather had the most to say as teams batting second won easily with smaller run chases in South Canterbury senior cricket on Saturday.
One must remember that the Duckworth/Lewis calculation system does not apply in club cricket in South Canterbury, but that the simple average method is used i.e. total runs divided by 20. This gives a figure that is then multiplied by the number of overs available to the team batting second to find the new target total.
Star was put in to bat first at home against Timaru, a decision made because of the forecast showers and not because Timaru prefer to chase, or wanted to see what the pitch was doing, but because in Twenty20 cricket the team batting second in rain-affected matches thus inherits a huge advantage.
Star got through to 14 before the wheels fell off and in no time at all they were 16-5 as uncle and nephew (Hayden and Brad Leonard) knocked the top order over.
Only Jacques Marais in his second outing for Star showed any resilience as he found a partner in Sam Richardson to take the score through to 63. When the 20 overs were up Marais had finished 54 not out and had helped Star to a more competitive 92-7.
For Timaru both Leonards took 2-8 while Tim Butler also grabbed two wickets.
The break came at the same time as more rain and the over reductions started eventually leaving Timaru requiring 75 runs off 14 overs, a target they reached off just nine overs with Michael Hogan (22) and Prabodha Arthavidu (23*) the top scorers and Jeremy Lane picking up both wickets to fall.
At Aorangi Oval the two country teams met first up with Waimate batting against Temuka.
Waimate started well scoring 69 before losing George Morgan for 25 and then Waimate Captain Sam Porter for 36 on the same total.
Waimate also had their usual running between the wickets problem losing two more batsmen in that manner, but T20 specialist Nathan Sew Hoy again stood up, scoring 48 not out as Waimate put up a good total of 142-5 before rain stopped play in their 20th over.
The long break counted in Temuka’s favour as their target was reduced to just 50 off 7 overs, which while they still had to get them, was probably a lot easier than maintaining that scoring rate for 20 overs.
Willie Stone with 17 not out and Robbie Barry 19 made the job look easy as they won after 5 overs.
In the “Catholic Derby” at Ashbury Park, Roncalli/Celtic batted first against Celtic but only Tristram Cooper with 22 showed much fight as the rest of the batsmen made steady progress to and from the pavilion as Roncalli/Celtic were dismissed in the final over for 82.
James Blackstock (3-17) picked up the first 3 wickets to fall and Tom Pavletich with 3 -10 also enjoyed his time at the bowling crease.
Celtic’s run chase was interrupted by rain but eventually Captain James Laming (30 not out) and Sam Carlaw reached the target of 62 for the loss of just the one wicket.
For Roncalli/Celtic the tactic seemed to be to give everyone a bowl (except the captain) and although 10 bowlers were used only Liam Cosgrove with 1-6 had any luck.
As the second matches all ended up being abandoned due to the inclement weather, the leaderboard will have to wait until next weekend’s double-header to gain some shape or see who will get the jump on other teams. Currently Celtic has two wins and the next four teams have one win.