Pressure ramps up
Marlborough’s cricket’s SBS senior championship enters its second round on Saturday, with the pressure already ramping up on first round losers Wairau and Renwick.
With just four preliminary rounds to be played pre-Christmas, before the final on January 13, a second successive loss could prove critical for defending champs Wairau and Renwick, who contested the 2017-18 50-over final.
In the first round on Saturday, with many of the province’s leading players in Westport playing a rep game against Buller, teams bore little resemblance to their full-strength line-ups. In a couple of low-scoring encounters, Wairau suffered an outright loss to Wairau Valley while Renwick suffered the same fate against Celtic.
There are changes aplenty in all the senior sides for Saturday’s action. Biddy Kate’s Cafe and Bar Wairau Valley welcome back Rikki Bovey, Sam Boyce, Ben Allan, plus Greg and Matthew Stretch. They will take on a Sileni Estates Renwick side bolstered by the return of skipper Luke Frankland and Prabodha Arthavidu, both of whom scored handy 30s in Westport.
Grove Tavern Wairau will call on the services of rep players Harry MacDonald, Ma’ara Ave and Alex Kennedy, while pace bowlers Nick Weaver and Chris Turkington are also available, giving their side a more balanced composition.
They will need to be at their best though when they meet a redhot Biddy Kate’s Celtic combination on Horton Park 3. Skipper Jerrym Lamb has incumbent rep players Ben Blackman and Matt McCormick to call on, plus allrounder Josh Poole who was injured last weekend. Jack Porter returns for the 50-over champs after returning from university while regular second graders Logan Robinson and Liam Young, on debut, are expected to play. Both matches begin at 11.30am. On Sunday the Marlborough under-15 rep side will take on their Nelson counterparts at Horton Park, with a 10.30am start.