Grassroots
CRICKET Auckland
After a night of thunder and lightning, a fine Saturday morning greeted players across the city for round four of the Jeff Crowe Cup and the opening double round of Pearl Dawson T20 action. In Devonport, North Shore finally won a toss and elected to bat. Takapuna turned to spin early, using three different spinners inside the first 10 overs. The hosts were in trouble early when Takapuna skipper Will O’Donnell took a simple return catch. North Shore’s rebuild was slow. Sam Hinds swept his way to a gritty 41 and Michael Olsen played boldly for 31 to get North Shore in a position to launch in the final 20 overs.
Spin continued throughout, with O’Donnell claiming immaculate figures of 4-23 to lead the visitors’ spin quartet. Max O’Dowd also proved a difficult to see off when North Shore required acceleration towards the end of the innings.
Late cameos by Gus McKenzie and Carl Brungar crept North Shore to a respectable score of 172 all out. Takapuna’s spinners claimed all 10 wickets. The slow and somewhat inconsistent nature of the wicket meant Shore’s total could have been a winning score. Takapuna’s start mirrored North Shore’s — slow and steady. Olsen rolled his arm over and his gamble paid off with the wicket of Guy Harley. Zakk Finlay came in at No 3 and added impetus with a quickfire 33.
O’Dowd batted responsibly ensuring Takapuna wouldn’t have similar struggles to North Shore’s during the middle overs. He added 78 not out to his four wickets, completing an exceptional match double and guiding Takapuna to a seven-wicket victory with 14 overs to spare.
Bay of Plenty
Greerton won the Baywide Cup for the third time, beating Otumoetai Cadets in a game of attrition where 19 wickets fell, before they clinched victory with a wicket to spare.
Defending champions Cadets batted first on a wicket that looked to have plenty of assistance for the bowlers. They lost their first three wickets for 25, before Bay of Plenty representative all-rounders Sean Davey and Jono Boult steadied the innings. Davey departed for 20, with the Cadets captain continuing on before being removed for 37.
It was left to the visitors’ lower order of Daniel Maathuis and Kamal Bains to defy the Greerton bowlers, with Cadets finally bowled out for 167. Greerton skipper Shane Wineti showcased his allround talents, taking four wickets for just 11 runs. Nick Hendrie and Henry Collier opened the Greerton reply and launched a solid attack before Collier was dismissed for 21. At 98-1, the hosts appeared to be cruising, before the Cadets bowlers struck back to rip out five Greerton batsmen for just a handful of runs.
Enter Tom Renouf batting at eight, as he defied the Cadets bowling storm to take his team through to a one-wicket win, with an unbeaten 36. Big-match experience displayed by Boult (4-29) and Davey (3-24) almost resulted in Cadets taking out back-toback Baywide Cups.
Greerton captain Shane Wineti said: “Winning the toss and asking Cadets to bat on a green wicket was one of the keys to victory in what turned out to be a classic final. At 100-1, chasing 168, we were in charge. However, they came back to grab five wickets for just six runs to turn the game in their favour. “Jono Boult and Sean Davey are absolute class players, with both bowling brilliantly to take seven wickets between them. Our lower order were able to grind out the last 60-odd runs to win. “Keeper Tom Renouf, in just his second year with the club showed maturity beyond his age and he was definitely our player of the match.”
The Greerton trophy cabinet now houses the two big prizes in Bay of Plenty premier cricket, with the Baywide Cup joining the Williams Cup that the Pemberton Park-based side won in the second half of last season. Remarkably, Greerton won both trophies without losing a game.
Also on the line on the last day of cricket before the holiday break was the Bay of Plenty berth in the Northern Districts Club Championships, with the Greerton premiers taking their place with the five other ND minor association contenders early in the New Year.
FOOTBALL ISPS Handa Premiership
The ISPS Handa Premiership wrapped up for the year in stunning style with one of the most remarkable games in the history of the competition. In front of the Sky Sport cameras at The Trusts Arena in Auckland yesterday, Waitakere United had raced into a three-goal lead before Hamilton Wanderers then produced an amazing comeback in the second half to somehow win 4-3. Argentinian striker Martin Bueno was the hero with a hat-trick but the winning goal was provided by Papua New Guinea international Tommy Semmy, whose strike kept Wanderers in the fourth and final playoff position heading into the Christmas break. “I thought it wasn’t coming at half-time, that’s for sure,” Hamilton coach Ricki Herbert admitted. “And quite rightly so because we got what we deserved, we put ourselves into a huge hole. But credit to the players, we made a few changes that panned out to be right and the boys who came on injected the energy into the team. That’s been a real trademark of Hamilton Wanderers this year. We certainly didn’t see that in the first half.”
It was all going so well for Waitakere in the opening half-hour, a pair of stunning free kicks from Oliver Bassett and captain Jake Butler putting them well in control before Ben Gordon made it 3-0.
But the game appeared to turn after Waitakere’s defensive lynchpin, Bill Robertson, was forced off at half-time with a suspected broken arm and Bueno took centre stage.
The first of his goals was the third stunning free kick of the match and he followed that up with a low drive that went in off the far post before completing his hat-trick with an outstanding header. Semmy then completed the job with 10 minutes left, much to the dismay of Butler.
“It was pretty embarrassing to be honest, I don’t know what went through our heads for that second half,” the former All White said.
“We turned in a really good performance in the first half and it’s the story of our season that we then go and do something stupid like that. But, fair play to Hamilton, they brought it to us in the second half and got the reward.”
Eastern Suburbs also found the net four times but their winning margin was much more comfortable as they put an end to the unbeaten run of Hawke’s Bay United with a 4-1 victory in Napier. Dalton Wilkins, Callum McCowatt, Elijah Just and Owen Parker-Price were all on target before Sam Mason-Smith earned a late consolation for the Bay. There were also plenty of goals in Nelson, where Auckland City got straight back into their stride after last week’s rest with a 3-1 win over strugglers Tasman United.
David Browne made a long-awaited return from injury for the defending champions and didn’t take long to make his mark, scoring after just five minutes before Javier Lopez scored from the penalty spot soon after.
Tasman threatened to fight back when Kiernan Hughes-Mason scored early in the second half but Browne struck again just past the hour to make sure the points would be heading north.
Tasman still have just four points to their name and are only being kept off last place by the Wellington Phoenix Reserves.
There wasn’t as much net-bulging further down the country but no less drama as Southern United hosted local rivals Canterbury United in a South Island derby. The home side were forced to play most of the match with 10 men after the dismissal of goalkeeper Liam Little midway through the first half, leaving youngster Stewart Catto to come on between the sticks as Southern sacrificed the attacking talents of Abdulla Al-Kalisy.
Catto made a good fist of his introduction to this level but could do nothing about Canterbury’s winner, Stephen Hoyle giving him no chance when smashing home a cutback shortly before the break. Southern fought valiantly to stay in the game and Canterbury could not make full use of their numerical advantage to go further in front but took maximum reward from the game regardless, moving within a point of the playoff spots.
The ISPS Handa Premiership now takes a break for the festive period before returning with a full round of fixtures on January 6.