Marlborough crush Canterbury

Marlborough confirmed top spot in Hawke Cup Zone 3 following a convincing 1st innings win over Canterbury Country over the weekend.

As a result Horton Park will host the 3 day Zone final against the same opponents from Feb 14-16 to decide which district goes forward to challenge for the Hawke Cup.

This is the third successive season that Marlborough has made it through to the Zone final.

Sam Boyce took 5-34 as Country was dismissed for 139 batting first. Jerrym Lamb then top scored with 56 in Marlborough’s reply after opener Tom Sutherland set the base with a solid 33 from 72 balls.

Andrew McCaa made 38 and Akhil Pant contributed a fluent 47 on debut to see his team through to 261 in reply.

Country had reached 81 for 1 in its 2nd innings when the teams agreed an early finish with no chance of an outright win for either side.

The 2nd grade T20 final proved a thrilling encounter with Renwick just holding on for a tense 4 run victory. Led by 77 from Rikki Bovey and Andrew Marshall’s 31 from 13 balls Renwick reached a formidable 152 for 4 batting first.

Ollie Lawson anchored Celtic Green’s reply with 37 and they looked favourites with 30 required from the final 30 balls.

Jacob Zillwood kept his calm to claim 3 wickets at the death finishing with 3-22 while young off spinner Griffin Carter conceded only 17 runs from his 4 overs as Celtic finished just short.

In Senior grade T20 games there were wins for Wairau over Renwick and Celtic over MBC 1st XI.

Harry MacDonald was Wairau’s match winner with an explosive 69 from 34 balls as they chased down Renwick’s 141.

Celtic comfortably defended a below par score of 114, Matt McCormick marking his return to Marlborough with a top score of 29. Josh Poole took 4-10 as MBC were bowled out for only 73.

The SBS Bank Senior grade T20 final is this Friday 7 th Feb on the main Horton Park no1 ground with Renwick taking on Celtic. Come along, bring a picnic and watch some great cricket action starting at 5.15pm.

WK junior grades began the 2020 season last weekend with some impressive performances in Saturday morning 4th grade games.

Luke Zillwood (39), Alex Neal (4-12), Blake Nation (36), Nathan Brooke-Taylor (37), Blake Pitts (3-24), Dane Winstanley (3-11), Josh Harris (38), Kayse Holdaway (5-18), Luke Holdaway (39), Niko Russell (30), Louis Girling (31) and Will Turner (33) were among the top performers.

A reminder that you can still register to play by contacting development@marlboroughcricket.co.nz

Use the same email address to register for our Churchill Private Hospital Women’s Social 6-a-side competition which starts on Tuesday February 11.

MORE PHOTOS

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BRYA INGRAM/STUFF Jeremy Benton gets his shot away for Canterbury Country in his side’s losing effort against hosts Marlborough last weekend.