Valley-City cricket moves into finals mode

Rain again brought a halt to most of the games in the last round of pool matches in the Hamilton/ Waikato Valley club cricket limited-overs competition.

Morrinsville had to abandon its match against St Paul’s Collegiate and a draw was declared on Saturday.

The only game that was completed was between Hamilton Boys’ High School and Melville, with boys’ high destroying their opponents at home.

Needing just 53 for victory to seal a spot in the final as Pool A winners, HBHS didn’t leave anything to chance with rain looming despite a slight hiccough as they lost their first two wickets for five runs.

A quick unbeaten 28, with four fours, from opener Owen Ivins, and 20 not out from as many balls from Michael Dodunski meant the target was reached after only 10.2 overs.

Cambridge looked assured of claiming the top spot in Pool B before their match on Saturday against Hamilton Old Boys at Cambridge Square and ultimately the rain made their place in the final certain.

As it was, they would have fancied their chances of victory after dismissing Old Boys for 103 in only 28.2 overs. While Jonathan Lush made 26 off 55 balls at the top of the order, no other recognised batsman made a contribution as Chris Dodds (3-30 off eight overs) and Nathan Goldthorp (3-31 off 8.2) put the hosts in the box seat.

Cambridge were 5-1 in their chase when the match was aban- doned due to rain, giving them the two points that ensured Marist Suburbs couldn’t catch them at the top of the pool standings.

Suburbs didn’t get much of a chance to make an impression anyway, as veteran opener Leighton Parsons’ unbeaten 56 off 98 balls had Otorohanga 114-3 after 35 overs in their clash at Galloway Park before the rain came.

Waikato Valley Cricket Association’s Mark Coles said the rain had been a problem for the newlook competition but in recent weeks he had been pleased with the quality of games played.

‘‘We’re in a position now we’re we have a final between Cambridge and Hamilton Boys’ High in the final. That’s ideally what we wanted, a team from each side to play off so we’re pretty happy with that.’’

Coles said there would be a review and talks between Waikato Valley Cricket Association and Hamilton Cricket, to hear how well the competition was run, how valuable players found it and what could be set in place next year.