Boys college team makes T20 debut

This weekend sees our senior grade sides in action with the start of our popular SBS Bank T20 competition.

This season Marlborough Boys College 1st XI make its debut in the competition as a direct replacement for the Wairau Cavaliers side.

The College boys will be bolstered by a number of experienced senior grade players who will add quality to the side as and when required.

MBC coach, Chris McMurtrie, believes that the college players will benefit from the higher standard of competition along with the chance to play together as a team more often.

It will be interesting to see how the side develops this year.

First round games this Friday see the MBC team take on Biddy Kates Celtic while Grove Tavern Wairau play Sileni Estates Renwick, both games at Oliver Park starting at 5.15pm.

Also this weekend Marlborough begins its Hawke Cup Zone 3 campaign at Horton Park with Buller the visitors on Saturday and Sunday, play starting at 10.30am each day.

Marlborough will be hoping for another strong showing after convincingly beating Buller earlier in the month and then bringing home the Cave Cup from the Central Districts tournament.

The Marlborough Primary Schools development squad will also be hosting Buller at Horton Park over the weekend with a T20 game on Saturday followed by a 40 over game on Sunday, both games on the Horton Park no 3 ground.

In TPL action from last weekend the Dolphins had the bye while the Marlborough Labour Hire Falcons had a fruitless trip over to Nelson where both captains agreed there was no chance of play and the game was abandoned without a ball bowled.

The other two games in Nelson did go ahead however giving Stoke Nayland and WTTU the chance to make up ground with comfortable 5 point wins.

The Marlborough sides still occupy the top two places but the table is more congested as the competition takes a break this weekend due to Hawke Cup action.

In 2nd grade cricket Wairau Valley were too strong for Renwick while Wairau Warriors and UCVC managed to get their campaigns back on track and Picton picked up their first win of the season.

WK 4th grade cricket once again saw some fine performances with Flynn Hawtin hitting a powerful 52no as Wairau White racked up 186 for 3 from their 30 overs against Renwick.

Griffen Carter nearly led Renwick to victory with an unbeaten 93 before they fell 29 runs short, Jonty Loza and Baxter Croad each picking up 3 wickets for Wairau.

In the only other game that a result was posted Sam Young top scored with 35 for Wairau Red but their total of 96 was not enough to prevent Celtic coasting to victory in only 17 overs, Luke Holdaway adding 14 runs to his 2 wickets.

SUPPLIED Marlborough begins its Hawke Cup Zone 3 campaign at Horton Park with Buller the visitors on Saturday and Sunday.