South Canterbury Cricket News Section

In a fitting end to the season, the final of the Tweedy Cup Senior Two Day cricket competition came down to a nerve wracking last hour and a half before Geraldine were eventually able to begin celebrating their first win since the 1999/00 season. Guy Metcalf will be first in line for drinks after he took 2-6 with the ball and followed that up with a very solid 75, part of the better team effort in the match.

Geraldine had looked to be cruising to victory at 195-4 chasing 262 for the first innings lead, and hence the trophy, when suddenly Star got themselves back into the match. They dismissed a mercurial Matt Barnes for 53 and then when danger man Hamish Drennan followed for only 7 shortly later suddenly the Star players body language changed as they realized they were still in with a chance.

An inspired bowling change by Phil McGregor when he brought Jeremy Lane back into the attack paid dividends after he dismissed Guy Metcalf and then Tim Sowden next ball to finish the over with a hat trick pending and Geraldine suddenly in trouble at 239 – 7.

Regan Tate got to 21 before the “caught Arkinstall, bowled Hinton” pair struck again and Geraldine were perilously poised at 256-8. Chris Esh joined Phil Lill at the crease, but this time he couldn’t see Geraldine through as he had done in the round robin match after lofting a ball to McGregor at mid-off having advanced the score only 2 runs to 258-9.

The outwardly appearing calm figure of Phil Chapman, the self-proclaimed “Chris Martin” of the Geraldine team strode to the middle to face a fired up Lane. He successfully negotiated the first delivery before Lane strayed onto leg with the next delivery and he was good enough to get pad on it as it ran agonizingly slowly for the Geraldine team and supporters to the boundary to give them victory.

Star who have had a very successful season making the final of both one day and two day finals, will feel dejected after picking up the ‘bridesmaid’ tag in both finals, and it was unfortunate for them in both cases that they were not able to follow up good plans with execution.

After winning the toss they batted first on the Oval, which is renowned for being a batsmen’s paradise, and they knew they would need to bat all day, possibly longer and set an imposing total so that their bowlers had plenty to play with.

Phil McGregor continued as he has all season, opening and playing the anchor role while the others score around him. He lost Tom Bouch early after he forgot to ground his bat running to the non-strikers end and was run out by a direct hit by Matt Barnes. Paul Arkinstall helped get the score through to 47 before he fell for 24, and then Todd Elliotte joined him and together the pair added 138 runs with Elliotte dominating all the bowlers as he got the scoreboard ticking. Unfortunately for Todd, he fell 3 runs short of what would have been his second club century after a successful LBW appeal.

McGregor continued on, not losing his wicket as often happens after a long partnership, but there was a steady procession back to the pavilion as the Geraldine medium pacers quickly showed that bowling wicket to wicket was the best way of restricting batsmen, and forced many to play injudicious shots as the pressure was applied.

Sowden and Tom McKnight toiled away successfully with Chris Esh into the wind, while Chapman and Metcalf picked up the wickets downwind, as seven Star batsmen failed to make double figures. McGregor was eventually out after 276 minutes for a solid 84, but his team was always at least fifty runs short after being dismissed for 261.

With 13 overs to be bowled before stumps, Star were happy at stumps with Stephen Pagan back in the shed after a brilliant diving catch by Hamish Dickson in the gully, and Geraldine 10-1, but night watchman McKnight soon showed the next morning he had other ideas, setting up what became a successful run chase.

In partnership with Ben Millar, and all day to bat, they took their time as they got themselves in and then worried about the runs. When Millar went for 48, the pair had added 78 runs, and although McKnight was out 12 runs later for 33, some of the shine was gone and this and the following partnerships became the difference between the teams.

The Star bowlers tried hard all day with Craig Hinton taking 4 wickets from 28 overs, while Todd Elliotte and Tim Butler made the initial breakthroughs, but as it turned out, the paucity of runs on the board by Star made it tough work on the bowlers as they tried to peg Geraldine back, and in the end the thrilling finish was a real fillip for those administrators and spectators who had braved the cold southerly for two days.

Score Board

This weekend Star will take on the top qualifiers Geraldine in a two day match for the Tweedy Cup where it is hard to predict the outcome. In their previous encounters, Geraldine took outright points in the two day match after successfully chasing down 141 runs in only 16 overs with two balls to spare. This was after former South Canterbury opening batsman Stephen Pagan had scored 77 not out batting at number 10 to give Geraldine a first innings lead. However honours were squared in the one day matches.

Star have had the most recent success in the Tweedy Cup after beating Celtic in the 2004-05 season to get their name on the cup, while for Geraldine a berth in the final is further into the archives.

On paper, Star captain Phil McGregor should be spoiled for choice with a bowling lineup to call on that features SC opening bowler Craig Hinton (who also topped the club averages), as well as the equally well performed Mark Evans, not to mention Hamish Dickson, Jeremy Lane, Tim Butler and the experienced off-spin of Todd Elliotte.

Opposing that Geraldine has the experienced Pagan who knows how to rise to the big match occasion, English professional Matt Barnes who was the second highest run scorer in South Canterbury for the club season, Hamish Drennan who can turn a game with his aggressive batting, and the consistent Guy Metcalf and Regan Tate. If all the batsmen step up and support each other, it could be a great spectacle, especially as it is being played on a batsmen’s paradise on the Aorangi Oval, notorious for making the best of bowlers work very hard for any reward.

While the Star batting lineup may seem slightly weaker, Tom Bouch and McGregor have usually got their team off to a solid start, and Paul Arkinstall, now restricted to playing as a batsman has played well in the last couple of months, while wicketkeeper Chris Anders has not only enjoyed his job behind the stumps, but also in front of them as well averaging almost 40 with the bat. There is plenty more experience down the order for Star too, and as long as the team have a clear understanding of their game plan, and are all on the same page, Star are capable of posting impressive scores.

For the Geraldine bowling attack, their whole season improved once Drennan became able to play regularly and he has bowled quickly and with good rhythm to trouble most opposition. He has been supported by spinner Chris Esh, the other English professional in the side. Esh had a hapless start to his NZ stay but has now been picking up wickets by the handful in recent matches. With Tom McKnight, Phil Chapman and Guy Metcalf to back them up, the quest for superiority between the two bowling and batting attacks should make for a great tussle.

Both teams start the match from scratch, as all points are removed and must play for the best possible result. Winning the toss and batting all day is fine, as long as you can dismiss the opposition for less and at least achieve a first innings win. If things go awry in your first innings you may then have to turn the match around and look for an outright result to counter your first innings failings.

The match begins on both days at 10.30am and whether you support a team or are just cricket in general, you should have a pleasurable two days.

Below are the unofficial batting and bowling averages according to received records for the complete season. These include both two day and one day matches, but exclude the Twenty20 competition. Of special interest is that Dan Laming again proved he is the districts finest all rounder, leading the batting aggregate with 600 runs including one century (162 in a one day game) and five half centuries, as well as being second in the bowling averages. He may have scored more runs and taken more wickets, if he had not been away on representative duty.

Julian Danby scored 3 centuries, and Matt Barnes scored 2 centuries and 3 fifties, while Kevin Teahen with 34 took the most wickets for the third season in a row. Saturday combatants, Hinton and Esh both achieved hat-tricks this year, and fittingly both took 8 wicket bags.

To qualify batsmen need to have scored 240 or more runs and average over 25, while bowlers need to have taken 14 or more wickets and bowled more than 50 overs.

Proviso:

The following records are not official, but listed according to the score sheets and information I have received to date. 

Batting:

Name	Aggregate	Innings	NO	Average	HS
Julian Danby	478	8	1	68.28	134
Dan Laming	600	12	1	54.54	162
Ritchie Preston	381	8	0	47.62	118
Jason Sew Hoy	528	15	3	44	87
Chris Anders	319	11	3	39.87	79
Matt Barnes	557	16	2	39.78	102
Craig Davies	276	7	0	39.42	100
Hamish Drennan	303	10	1	33.66	95
Ben Millar	244	9	1	30.5	57
Ryan De Joux	481	16	0	30.06	94
Phil McGregor	404	15	1	28.85	74
Paul Arkistall	286	10	0	28.6	77
Tim Mackle	340	14	2	28.33	90*
Stephen Pagan	323	13	1	26.91	77*

 

Bowling:

 

Name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Ave
Craig Hinton	117.1	34	282	27	10.44
Dan Laming	115	28	324	28	11.57
Reuben Allan	50.4	5	173	14	12.35
Mark Evans	94.3	14	375	27	13.88
Ben Millar	57	4	237	16	14.81
Tim Butler	95.2	12	281	18	15.61
Sam Carlaw	131.2	22	433	27	16.03
Hamish Drennan	113.3	17	401	25	16.04
Sam Devlin	69	14	228	14	16.28
Kevin Teahen	155.6	32	580	34	17.05
Allan Reid	144	27	511	29	17.62
Hamish Dickson	124.3	20	407	23	17.69
James Laming	100.2	20	301	17	17.70

Star supporters had visions of last season’s last minute demise as their team stuttered and gasped in their chase for first innings points and the right to play top qualifiers Geraldine in the final of the Tweedy Cup next weekend. Zane Sanders was doing his best for Timaru with a career best 7-71, but in the end Craig Hinton became the toast of the Star clubrooms as he lofted Sanders to cow corner for a four and the next ball for two runs to a similar position and Star gained the first innings points needed with two wickets still in hand.

The season draw played at perfectly with this match effectively becoming a semi-final. Captains and scorers changed hats to become mathematicians as the various possible outcomes were calculated and recalculated almost by the over. Needing 220 for a first innings win, Star were cruising at 142-2 after Paul Arkinstall (68) had added 99 runs for the second wicket with his captain Phil McGregor. McGregor who was playing the anchor role for his team continued on to make 43 and was the sixth wicket to fall, but the Star middle order let Sanders get on top as they slipped to be 162-6.

Old hands Todd Elliotte and Julian Blanchard then steadied the ship somewhat before Blanchard was out stumped with the score at 175 and 45 runs still required. Calculations at this stage showed that if Timaru did win on the first innings and taking the bonus points into consideration that at the end of the first innings, Timaru would now have a lead of 0.72 points and all second innings runs and wickets would be changing every time a run was scored or a wicket fell.

Paul Brohan joined Elliotte and between them had moved the score to 194-7 at tea with Elliotte 29 not out and Brohan 2 not out. Tea also allowed the fielding side to catch up on all the possible outcomes, but as so often happens with a break in an innings, Elliotte was caught out by a great catch to Grant Brookland in the covers shortly after tea with no addition to his score. 203-8 meant a further 17 runs were still required when Craig Hinton joined Brohan in the middle, while Timaru only needed two wickets.

Hinton has already been in this situation this season, almost seeing South Canterbury through to an upset win over Canterbury Country, but this time it was Brohan who also showed courage under fire as his innings grew, eventually making an invaluable 25, and importantly he was still there when Hinton hit the runs that gave Star first innings points and a lead of 11 points over Timaru, which basically meant the rest of the game was played out to satisfy rules requirements.

An exciting, edge of your seat match had a couple of incidents that took some of the pleasure out of the match. This can be mainly attributed to the lack of official umpires, and as a result, as the tension mounted, the player-umpires came under further scrutiny. Unfortunately, depending on which team one supported often meant how decisions, or non decisions were viewed, and comments passed on and off the field did nothing to improve the situation.

In the other two matches, after being 49-7 overnight Waimate put up a second innings fight to go on and score 178 after Todd Bailey scored his maiden senior fifty and Jason Sew Hoy finished off a great season by passing 500 runs on his way to 79 not out. Geraldine lost two wickets on their way to the 42 runs required, but was a deserving winner after their efforts on day one, and will be hoping all their players are available and back from University for next weekend’s final.

Celtic and Temuka played out their last match of the season on a much improved Rockdale Rd pitch this week, and with Celtic team funds (fines) doubled for the last day soon had them boosted after James Laming scored 59 and Matt Mealings 66, while Luke Taylor made the most of his new role as captain and lead the way scoring an unbeaten 89 before selflessly declaring in sight of his century and leaving Temuka an imposing 330 runs to win.

Helped by 70 runs to Ritchie Preston, Temuka put up a better showing second time around, but were eventually all out for 159 after James Laming capped off a good day at the office with 4 wickets while Sam Carlaw with 3 and Willy Scott 2 helped him out giving outright victory to Celtic.

Scoreboards

10 wickets for the day including a hat-trick for Chris Esh alongside a powerful 95 by Hamish Drennan has taken Geraldine to the top of the table with one day’s play left to find the finalists in the Tweedy Cup.

At the start of the day Star appeared safe in top spot five points clear of Timaru and seven points ahead of Geraldine, but with Esh routing Waimate in Geraldine, and his team likely to pick up outright points with Waimate already 49-7 in their second innings, the match between Star and Timaru at Ashbury Park has taken on plenty of new meaning as well as throwing up a complex web of possible outcomes.

Unofficially after Day One, Geraldine has 54.89 points (with at least 10 more likely), Star has moved on to 51.89 points and Timaru to 45.59, still 6.3 points behind. A first innings win is worth 6 points but even if Timaru achieve this, they need to do so quickly before Star gain too many more batting points. Star’s safest path to the final is to win on the first innings which would assure them of a spot, albeit as second qualifiers behind Geraldine. With memories of last season’s last round demise still ringing around the clubrooms, batting practice will be at a premium in the Star nets this week.

On a slow day where some spectators struggled to stay awake, Timaru batted for 82 overs for their 219 after being put in by Star. This has turned the match into a first innings affair, a decision which may now come back to haunt Timaru unless they do dismiss Star very cheaply next week to secure first innings points and at the same time gain better bonus points than Star. This will not be easy with Star already 47-1 in reply.

For Timaru, Gerald Piddock followed up his pre-match thoughts that “today was his day” top scoring with 72 while earlier Scott Johnson scored 50 after being called in to open the batting before rushing off to Dunedin. Hitesh Angrish was also called in at late notice and scored 33, but it is a sad blight on cricket when a senior team can only field 10 players in a match where they could still be a competition finalist (they would have had 11 if the correspondent had taken up an offer to bat!).

Mark Evans with 3-27 and Tim Butler (2-19) were the pick of the Star bowlers while the hard working Hamish Dickson and Todd Elliotte both snaffled two wickets from 18 and 23 over spells respectively.

In Geraldine, after Waimate succumbed for 72 in their first innings to Chris Esh with his outstanding return of 6-12 including the hat-trick, Geraldine also struggled early on and were 53-5 before Drennan with 95 and the in form Regan Tate with 68 joined forces to add 153 runs for the sixth wicket, and take Geraldine well away from any danger. Alan Reid was again the best of the Waimate bowlers with 4-41, while Jason Sew Hoy took two wickets after relinquishing his keeper’s role in preparation for next season.

Waimate are faring no better in their second innings as Drennan with 3-7 took out the top order and Esh with a relatively expensive 4-24 has continued on from the first innings, and unless it rains it will take a Herculean effort for Waimate to save the match.

At Rockdale Rd the slow outfield and lack of preparation meant that like elsewhere, the pitch had become a minefield with inconsistent bounce leading to the most player umpire lbw decisions given all season. While batsmen had to make themselves get forward to every delivery, this didn’t always save them either, and to make matters worse, boundaries were at a premium, and unless the ball cleared it on the full, generally batsmen had to run to score.

Temuka who still had a chance to make the final as they did last season where they came from 5th to first in the last round, also disappointingly could only field 9 players. Despite this Temuka held the early upper hand with Celtic 57-5 at one stage as Kevin Teahen and Michael Geddis dominated with the ball, until Matt Mealings (28), Fred Morgan (45) and Ryan de Joux with 27 built partnerships to help Celtic to a respectable 182. Teahen finished with four wickets and Geddis three, while fill-in and South Canterbury selector Shane Gilkison made the most of his bowling opportunity to take 1-6, but by then the horse had bolted.

Temuka started well with openers Tristan Johnston and Richard Opie adding 53 in quick time for the first wicket, before Opie was out caught for 30, probably still thinking about the prize he had won for a six over mid wicket! Johnston continued on to be fourth out after scoring 40, but by now Sam Carlaw and Matt Mealings had settled on to the right length to bowl as they picked up four wickets each and Temuka were dismissed for 103 in 36 overs.

Batting a second time, Celtic is 64-2, with Matt Mealings 26 not out and leading the way in his new capacity as an all rounder. Celtic’s lead of 143 should give them a good chance to gain outright points, but this will be too little too late for Celtic as decisions made earlier in the season have thwarted their final aspirations.

Score Boards

THE loss of play on the first day of the penultimate round of senior cricket meant matches were played under new rules on the second day, with teams chasing first innings and bonus points only.

These rules were put in place to stop teams manipulating the controls, as has happened before, with captains contriving situations by agreeing to early declarations and then playing the second innings, with the winner gaining the opportunity of picking up an outright result in the second innings and the extra points available.

As it turned out, only Star were able to get a first innings result this round after cleaning Temuka out for 59 and then reaching their target for the loss of only 4 wickets, while in Waimate the home side and Celtic never made it onto the park and the Timaru vs Geraldine match was also a draw after play was finally abandoned at 5.50pm.

Temuka batted first and were soon in deep trouble as Craig Hinton and Jeremy Lane bowled tightly to have Temuka 22-5 before Adrian Cunningham found someone willing to hang around with him. Cunningham batted for more than two hours for his 15 runs, and what was a ‘breezy’ 27 in the conditions by Richard Opie was the only other innings in double figures.

Hinton bowled unchanged to take 4-16 off 16 overs while Lane grabbed 3 wickets as did Hamish Dickson who cleaned up the tail impressively to take 3-6.

With Star hoping to take advantage of Temuka’s demise and consolidate their position at the top of the table, they needed to score the runs required before the rain became too heavy and the match abandoned. Rain was falling by the time they were 25-2, but Tom Bouch who opened and top scored with 25 almost saw Star home before they finally won on the first innings in their 14th over.

At Ashbury Park, Geraldine won the toss and batted first against. Even allowing for the wet outfield, scoring was slow and many batsmen didn’t run as well as they might have after expecting good shots to go all the way to the boundary, and suddenly having them pull up.

Ben Millar got things under way with 24 and Matt Barnes returned to form with 63 before being caught and bowled by wily old campaigner Chris Leonard who now thinks Barnes is his ‘bunny’ after dismissing him twice this season! (Shame about the runs conceded first). Most of the other Geraldine batsmen got starts and Chris Esh 10 not out and young Harry Millar 12 not out were looking to improve their averages when rain eventually stopped play after 53 overs with Geraldine 161-7.

Hayden Leonard got through 18 overs and took two wickets while Chris Leonard capped off a good day with a caught and bowled to take his ‘bag’ from only seven overs. Robbie Rankin finally had an lbw answered affirmatively and Kris Howes was the other successful bowler.

Timaru were obviously keen to continue, while it suited Geraldine to stop, but eventually captains agreed and play was abandoned for the day with Timaru and Geraldine both accumulating almost identical points from the match.

With the final round starting next weekend, theoretically every team still has a chance of making the final although Waimate, Celtic and Temuka would need to score maximum points and want Timaru and Geraldine who are close behind competition leaders Star to score none. Waimate are to play Geraldine and could help or hinder their progress to the final, while the local derby between Star and Timaru will like last season be the crucial match of the round and could yet be a precursor to the final if Timaru can gain first innings points, or possibly an outright.

 Score Sheets

Dan Laming led his team to victory in the Daily Freightways Cup One Day Final with a solid 75 after earlier bowling tightly and only conceding 26 runs with the ball. He was backed up by a solid team performance after Celtic had earlier restricted Star to 223, a score which always seemed about 40 runs short of a truly competitive total on the Aorangi Oval.Defending Champions Celtic have had a legacy on final spots for many years and were keen to continue this from last season, but Star who hadn’t been in a One Day Final since the 1990s won the toss and decided to bat with the hope of continuing their winning form from the recent club game between the two teams.

Phil McGregor and Andrew McRae got them off to a sound start adding 79 before McRae was out in sight of his half century. James Laming then struck again 6 runs later to remove McGregor for 33, but with 23 overs gone and only 85 on the board the signs were already there that setting a total in excess of 250 was going to be a struggle.

Paul Arkinstall was run out in a mix up shortly later after a good throw from Willy Scott and then Chris Anders and Alexander McKenzie added 65 runs together, but the scoring rate was slow with batsmen not looking for the singles as often as they had displayed in the twenty20 match a week previously.

The pressure went on to up the anti and part time bowler Matt Mealings did a good job in the seven overs he was entrusted with to contain Star, while left arm spinner Sam Carlaw conceded only 33 runs from his nine overs and James Laming had the best analysis with 2-32.

Mark Tutton was also bowling tightly and had picked up two wickets when McKenzie took the long handle to him in the 44th over taking 23 runs off it to ruin his figures.

McKenzie again showed that he relishes playing at Aorangi as his innings grew and he ended up hitting 3 sixes and 6 fours on his way to 71 not out (taking his average to 277 at Aorangi this season), but his onslaught was too little too late as he ran out of overs to cause real damage after the earlier batsmen had scored too slowly.

Celtic got off to a great start despite the vociferous opposition support from the Star corporate box and ‘WAGS’ tent with the Star bowlers struggling to find the correct length to bowl to Ryan De Joux as he drove or pulled the ball on his way to a quick 42. The fall of his wicket with the score at 78 meant Celtic were already in a position to be able to bat sensibly without too many risks and this is what Tutton and Dan Laming set about doing.

A loud appeal for lbw from the first ball to Laming was unrewarded and later Tim Butler bowled him a great over with edges flying to the slip cordon, but these were the last chances he gave as his innings grew in confidence and with Mark Tutton also rising to the big occasion, the pair added 115 for the third wicket and put Star out of the trophy hunt.

The bowlers were changed regularly and McKenzie even bowled some overs of spin as Star tried to create something different, but with Tutton running well between the wickets, as well as picking up nine boundaries on his way to 60, Laming was able to dictate terms. When Laming was out with the score 212, he had done the captain’s job for the team and was very unlucky not to have been there right until the end, but that honour went to James Laming and Matt Mealings as they scored the winning runs with 4 overs to spare.

Scoresheet

Last week it was Craig Hinton who cleaned Celtic up, but this week it was a triumphant return from injury for Todd Elliotte as he mesmerized the Celtic batsmen and made the most of a deteriorating ‘home’ pitch. Elliotte took 4-16 off his 15 overs including 12 maidens, and in tandem with Hamish Dickson who took 3-32 they led the team to an outright victory by more than an innings over Celtic, a rare feat in the Tweedy Cup.When play started Celtic set about batting for most of the day, or at least getting primed for Sunday’s one day final against the same opposition and Ryan De Joux soon had the ball departing regularly to the boundary but unfortunately there was little support from the other end. When De Joux was third out for 55 the total was only 71.

This brought the Laming brothers Dan and James to the crease and they settled in and looked like making it a long day for Star in the field, especially after a couple of reasonable chances were spilled, but the paucity of runs as Elliotte and Dickson tied both ends up placed all the pressure back on to the batsmen. Elliotte got Dan to play on for 32, and then James was out not long after tea for 30 and there was no fight left as Celtic went from 128-4 to be all out for 161.

The other Star bowlers all bowled well too with less reward, but as this was the only outright result of the round, it has allowed Star to jump up to the top of the table, and they will be pleased Waimate took the honours from their match with Timaru who had been leading the competition.

A 10 wicket match bag for Alan Reid almost took Waimate from the bottom of the table to join Star at the top after Timaru had started the day in a strong position at 135-3 with not out batsmen Jordy Morrow on 80 and Hitesh Angrish 38, and while Morrow couldn’t add any further runs, Angrish went on to make 73. Reid took 6-57 and aided by some good fielding and bad running Timaru were dismissed 68 runs short of Waimate’s first innings 285.

Batting a second time Waimate’s captain Nathan Sew Hoy again got into the thirties as did Craig Booth but it was Hayden Matthews who top scored with an unbeaten 59 that allowed the declaration to come at 166-3. Needing 235 runs from only 26 overs was always going to be an uphill battle and wickets fell regularly as the chase went on. When the game started petering out to a draw, wickets to the part timers kept Waimate in the hunt as they came disappointingly close with Timaru 129-9.

In Geraldine it wasn’t the main match that entertained onlookers, but the game within a game played out by young English professional Chris Esh and the multi talented SC five-eight Ritchie Preston.

After waiting all season, Esh finally had things going his way after bowling well without luck since Christmas as he routed the Temuka batsmen to take 8-53 from 33 overs (6 for 30 this week). However, at the other end his battle was different as Preston struck 17 boundaries during the four and a half hours he spent at the crease on his way to making 118. The significance of Preston’s innings shown when you consider that the next highest individual score was 20, and that was scored on the first day.

Temuka was eventually out 40 runs short of first innings points and Geraldine then settled in to bat for the rest of the day and pick up as many bonus batting points as possible in an effort to keep themselves in contention near the top of the table. The friendly bowling helped too with only Adrian Cunningham not rolling his arm over for Temuka and when play ended Geraldine were 202-7.

Score Boards

Craig Hinton bowled his most inspired and timely spell of the season as he took 8-32 against Celtic allowing Star to enforce the follow on with Celtic still 197 runs in arrears. He should have had nine wickets, but his captain decided to share the spoils around after dropping a chance in gully and then snapping it up at the other end.

Star won the toss and batted first on their home ground soon taking advantage of a fairly good pitch. While both openers had departed by the time the score was 58, Paul Arkinstall and Chris Anders established yet another solid partnership and with Arkinstall punishing anything off line they soon added 60 runs before Anders (20) became the first of Ryan De Joux’s three victims in an inspired bowling change. Arkinstall was his second victim, but not before he had powered his way to 77 before again holing out to a boundary fielder.

A mini collapse of 3 wickets for the addition of only 7 runs was corrected when Nathan Tubb joined Twenty20 hero Alexander McKenzie to put on a further 77 runs before Tubb was out for 28. McKenzie continued on after tea to bring up his fifty but after he fell there was little resistance and Star was dismissed for 271, a target that appeared perhaps 30-40 runs light.

Celtic started well as De Joux attacked the bowling, but his 24 runs was to end up being easily the highest score as Hinton found the perfect length and then spent the next 14 overs terrorizing the Celtic batsmen. He clean bowled four batsmen, and had the others either caught in the slip cordon or lbw, and although it may have been his longest spell for some time, there was no way he was giving the ball to anyone else. This was such a good spell of bowling, that several spectators changed plans for the evening so as not to miss a ball.

Jeremy Lane backed him up well at the other end with the prize scalp of Dan Laming to a brilliant diving catch by wicketkeeper Anders (who blotted his copybook shortly after by appearing to celebrate slightly early and dropping an easy chance) and Mark Evans and Hamish Dickson also helped tie one end up, but it was definitely the Hinton show as Celtic were dismissed in the 28th over for 74, and then had the ignominy of having to bat out two more overs before stumps in their second innings.

A lot can happen in a week, and if it doesn’t rain, the Celtic batsmen will be looking for a long day batting to gain back some superiority before the one day final between these two team on the Sunday.

In Waimate it was the players who had failed to fire in the Twenty20 on Friday who were the stars on Saturday. Jordy Morrow took 5-46 for Timaru and then in a new role as an opening batsman was unbeaten on 80 at the close of play. Earlier most of the Waimate top order had made good contributions, but it had been Rafferty Fox batting at No 8 who top scored with 99 runs before being caught that helped Waimate score 285 in their first innings. The match is at an interesting stage with Morrow and partner Hitesh Angrish (38 not out) batting when Timaru resume their innings next week on 135-3 and they may look to try and consolidate their position at the top of the table by targeting first innings points, but Alan Reid who already has all three wickets to fall will be looking for a good ‘bag’ for himself and to put Waimate in the box seat and get themselves off the bottom of the table.

In the local derby between the second and third placed teams Temuka and Geraldine, Geraldine scored 249 with No 10 Phil Lill starring with 57 runs including ten boundaries as he and a very patient Tom McKnight added 46 runs at a run a minute for the final wicket. Earlier Millar with 43 and the middle order of Harper (35), Tate (26) and Franklin (36) had all made solid contributions.

Kevin Teahen toiled hard bowling 25 overs to take 4-87 while Robbie Histen was the next best bowler with 2-56 as it took the Temuka bowlers 75 overs to dismiss Geraldine.

In reply at 70-2 Temuka have lost both openers, but have Ritchie Preston (46 not out) and Teahen at the crease. However, one of these teams really needs to take the initiative and make something happen quickly if they want to get more out of the game than just first innings points. For both teams with the way the draw pans out for the rest of the season this is their best chance to gain valuable points, else they will only be letting teams behind them close the gap in the hunt for a finals berth.

Score Sheets