United start season with win
The club cricket season belatedly got underway on soft fields on Saturday and United captain Hayden Hill helped his side get off to a good start in the defence of their one-day crown.
Because of the recent rain, all games were played on artificial pitches. The bowlers’ runups were fine, but the outfields were soft and slow, making it hard to get value for shots, so it was a low-scoring round.
Hill grabbed three wickets as United bowled Palmerston out for 119 at Hokowhitu Park and then scored 30 not out to guide United to 122-7 and a three-wicket win.
United left-arm seamer Phil Mecredy got them off to a great start taking the first two of his three wickets in his opening spell.
Palmerston opener Aakash Shah made 25 and after losing early wickets, he added 32 runs for the third wicket with Benn Dixon, who scored 16 at No 4.
Mike Meyer also hung around to score 11, but there wasn’t much resistance and they were battling at 53-5 and 69-8. But Jamie Blackley whacked an unbeaten 26 from 22 balls at No 11 and they were all out in the 36th over.
Greg Berry grabbed a couple of middle-order wickets for 2-25, then Hill cleaned up the tail, snaring 3-34 with his left-arm off-spin.
In United’s turn at bat, they were struggling at 26-5 in the eighth over after a run out and the Palmerston seamers Dixon and Carlos Jensen ripped the top off.
But Tom O’connor scored a crucial 30 runs at No 4 and added 40 runs for the sixth wicket with Marcus Emery (13).
United were in trouble again at
81-7 and Palmerston sniffed a win, but Hill came to the rescue, hitting 40 not out from 28 balls, including two sixes, to get them to 122-7 in 27.5 overs. Dixon finished with 3-26 and Jensen with 2-24.
Old Boys got the better of Palmerston North Boys’ High School by four wickets at Panieri Park.
Old Boys rolled the schoolboys for just 66 in 25 overs as pacemen Stu Glendinning, Sam Kilmister and Stephen Bennett reduced Boys’ High to tatters, 39-8 inside the 16th over.
No 3 Curtis Heaphy with 12 and No 10 Cameron Harridge with 11 were the only batsman in double figures.
The tail hung around for a bit longer before leggie Brynn Cleaver removed both of them to end the innings.
Glendinning took 3-11, while Kilmister, Bennett and Cleaver all grabbed two wickets each.
Old Boys made hard work of the chase though, but luckily opener James Fitch scored a run-a-ball 30 to hold the innings together.
Harridge took 3-23 to put the pressure on Old Boys at 3-2, then 44-4, but captain Matt Borren played a calm hand with 10 not out to guide them to 66-6 in 25 overs.
Freyberg also started with a win, beating Marist by six wickets at Panieri Park.
Marist batted first and there weren’t any major contributions, as they made steady progress to reach 60-3. But Marist then lost a couple of wickets and struggled after that, going on to be all out for 85 in the 41st over.
The two best efforts came from No 3 Connor Morriss, who made 18, and No 4 Dylan Gaskin, who scored 16, but otherwise the only other batsmen in double figures were Jamie Connell (11) and Imran Khan (10).
Medium pacer Thomas Kuggeleijn took two top order wickets and then two tailenders to return the best figures of the match of 4-17.
Brad Fulton and Ali Akhter chipped in with two wickets each.
In Freyberg’s turn at bat, they lost two quick wickets, but Charles Parker teamed up with experienced head Luke Murray and got them to 50-3, a partnership of 28 runs, before Murray was out for 17.
Parker was out for 31 from 52 balls and put on 20 runs with Kuggeleijn, who was unbeaten on 28 from 14 balls, hitting three sixes.
Seamer Morriss was the best of the Marist bowlers, taking 2-18 and seamer Dylan Lynch, on debut for the premier one side, bowled well to take 1-13 from five overs.