Alex McDuff skittled Celtic with 5-18 on Saturday
A six-wicket haul and five five-wicket bags across three games were the highlights of the South Canterbury Modified one-day competition at the weekend.
Star’s Craig Hinton and Alex McDuff, known by many in South Canterbury cricketing circles as father and son, combined beautifully to steer Star to a 65-run win over Celtic in the final round of the senior modified competition.
Pleasant Point produced a superb bowling effort to skittle Timaru for 81 to record a three-wicket win and Waimate thanks to Glen Drake and Alan Reid defended 53 to edge out Temuka by five runs at Knottingley Park.
Glen Drake starred with five-wickets for Waimate on Saturday.
Despite the results which saw all the top three teams lose, Timaru’s one-wicket win over Star earlier in the competition meant even though the latter defeated Celtic they could not overtake Timaru and claim the trophy.
In the main game at Mountain View High School Celtic won the toss and asked Star to bat first.
Star, who score 120, made a reasonable start with openers Phil McGregor and Adam Fahey (16) getting the side through to 24 before the latter was the first to go, edging a delivery from Grant Watt through to James Laming.
Craig Hinton
McGregor went shortly after for 11, leaving Star cautiously placed at 35 for 2.
Two quick wickets with the score at 43 saw Celtic gain control but the key in the match, which helped get Star to a defendable total was the 47-run partnership between Jacques Marais and Daniel Campbell.
Marais (56) was the mainstay of the Star innings and when Campbell (12) chipped a ball to point straight after drinks the wheels fell off Star’s batting effort.
Sam Carlaw’s introduction to the bowling crease was the key for Celtic as he picked up five-wickets for just 22 runs in an accurate display of spin bowling.
Celtic strode to the crease reasonably confident of chasing down the 120 needed to win.
But after losing Adam Beck, James Laming, Sam Carlaw and Tom Pavletich all in the space of five overs, Celtic’s chase was thrown into disarray.
Only Liam Beck (11) and Jacob Naylor (23) made double figures in what was a limp batting effort from the visiting side.
Hinton 5-37 and McDuff 5-18 combined beautifully to claim all 10 wickets in just 17 overs.
Waimate were bundled out for just 53 after batting first in their match against Temuka.
Nathan Sewhoy top scored with 11, while Sam Devlin made 10 but the key innings came from opener George Morgan, who batted 76 minutes for his nine runs.
Temuka medium-pacer Vaughan Tarrant was the star for his side taking 6-15.
In reply, the visitors lost Willy Stone early with the score at 11, and Johnny Geddis at 26 and then the wheels fell off their chase.
They could only muster 48, with Alan Reid claiming 5-21 and Glen Drake 5-14 as the pair picked up all 10 wickets and Waimate snuck to a five-run win, in what has been the lowest score defended this season.
In the final game at Ashbury Park, Pleasant Point secured a three-wicket win against Timaru.
The home side batted first and could only manage 81 with Josh Smallridge top scoring with 19.
Stanley Mair was the chief destroyer for Point picking up 4-22 off eight overs, while Sean Wills and Mark Otley chipped in with two wickets each.
Pleasant Point made a positive start getting through to 20 before losing their first wicket.
They recorded their three-wicket win on the back of 20 from Richard Stowell and Tim Leonard with 18.
Timaru, Temuka and Star ended on 27 points, Celtic and Pleasant Point on 22.5 and Waimate on nine.
Meanwhile, in the final round of the Twenty20 competition Star defeated Pleasant Point by 14 runs thanks to 69 not out from Jacques Marais, Celtic smashed Temuka by nine wickets with Dan Laming scoring 71 not out Timaru cruised to a 40 run win over Waimate.