Celtic had time to do the Christmas shopping after dismissing Star early on the second day 10 runs short of having to bat again and moved to the top of the Tweedy Cup. Temuka reversed a first innings loss to win outright over Timaru and in Waimate the home team continued their dominance from day one only needing 57 to win outright in their second innings.
Timaru were always behind the 8 ball after being 39-4 in their second innings overnight, and despite a dogged innings from Robbie Rankin with 16, and 23 from both Gerald Piddock and Hayden Butler their total of 110 which left Temuka a target of 133 was probably 20-30 runs short of a really competitive total.
For Temuka Michael Geddis had plenty of reason to celebrate after taking his first 5 wicket bag for 10 seasons, while workhorse Kevin Teahen was his usual miserly self with 3-17 from 21 overs. At one stage he had bowled 10 overs and taken 1 wicket for 1 run, and the run was a wide.
Timaru made two early breakthroughs, but then dropped a crucial catch off John Geddis and he went on to make 30 while building a solid partnership with his captain Ritchie Preston. Preston batted through to victory for Temuka dominating the game with an unbeaten 59 and was supported by Chris Opie and Simon Attridge to make sure there were no late hiccups.
Waimate began the day with 10 overs still available in their first innings and went on the attack adding a further 56 runs with captain Jason Sew Hoy picking up his first half century of the season enabling a declaration at 243-7 and at the same time ruining the bowlers figures.
Batting a second time the Geraldine batsmen all got starts but no one could go on. Young Harry Miller after a week’s cricket at the U17 tournament found some form as he top scored with 30 in a very good innings, while George Harper was next best with 27.
However, it was Matt Devlin’s day as he ripped through the Geraldine tail on his way to a career best 5-26 after earlier Murray Prattley chimed in with two caught and bowled dismissals against last week’s top scoring Matt Walker and English pro Matt Barnes, and this time Geraldine could only post 135, leaving Waimate needing 57 for victory which they accomplished easily despite the loss of 3 wickets.
In the Celtic match, Star needed to bat all day to try and minimize the damage, and although night watchman Craig Hinton tried his best and was sixth out top-scoring with 28, apart from Alexander McKenzie with 27 there was little resistance, and Celtic made sure they put the finishing touches to the match by dismissing Star for 140, something they have been remiss in doing over the last couple of seasons. Glenn Matthews capped off a fine match with 4-39 while Paddy Farr and Sam Carlaw picked up a couple of wickets each.
These results will mean nothing next weekend when the inaugural Senior Twenty20 competition starts with teams playing two matches a day. Four teams will be in action using special pink balls at Ashbury next Saturday, and with the representative players on Hawke Cup duty at Aorangi it will be an interesting spectacle.