Marlborough cricketers start the year with some wins

Ed Gilhooly is the general manager of Marlborough Cricket Association.

Cricket has fired back into action following the Xmas and New Year break with a number of representative teams taking part in tournaments this month.

The Primary Schools Maroon development team took part in the Christchurch Tier 1 festival from January 8 to 11, winning four of their five matches. There were several outstanding contributions with Fionn Heagney finishing 3rd in both the batting and bowling standings with 123 runs (best of 44no) and 8 wickets (best of 5 for 7). Thomas Heagney hit the team’s highest score with 50 from 30 balls against South Canterbury.

The same week saw the Marlborough PS Yellow team take part in the Tier 2 festival staged by Canterbury Country winning 3 games with some fine performances. Harry Nailer topped the festival bowling charts with 11 wickets and a best of 5-20, while Joseph Gilhooly was in 4th place with 8 wickets. Kyle Buckley finished 4th in the batting with 152 runs and a top score of 44.

This week sees our Primary School Gold Girls team taking part in their festival in Christchurch while our Year 9/10 Boys team travel to Levin for the Central Districts tournament to complete our age group festivals for this summer.

The Pak’nSave Marlborough Women’s team travelled to Masterton over the weekend taking on Taranaki first up on Saturday. Carly Englefield made a fine 82 well-supported by Eden Pettrigrew (40 from 50 balls) as Marlborough made a competitive 175 for 5 from their 40 overs. Taranaki chased the target down for the loss of 4 wickets as the Marlborough bowlers struggled to make the key breakthroughs. It was a similar story in Sunday’s match against a strong Manawatu side who posted 251 for 7 batting first (Stella Cornelius 2-21, Courtney Bowen 2-38). Carley Englefield top scored with 19 as Marlborough fell well short, all out for 89 in reply.

The Marlborough Senior Rep Men’s side were also in action at Horton Park over the weekend in their final Hawke Cup Zone 3 elimination series game against Canterbury Country. Batting first on an excellent batting strip Marlborough were well-placed on 198 for 3 before sliding to 250 all out.

Matthew Stretch made 31, Andrew McCaa 68 and Corey Bovey an outstanding 87 from 87 balls including 6 sixes and 10 fours. The total proved no match for the strong Country team who reached 386 for 6 in reply for a 1st innings win. Pick of the Marlborough bowlers was Luke Pannell with 2-43 from 10 overs. The result sees Country progress to take on Nelson in the Zone 3 final in 2 weeks' time.

There were wins for Wairau and Celtic as SBS Bank Senior grade T20 cricket resumed last week. This week sees the resumption of both the 2nd and 3rd grade T20 competitions along with the start of the post Xmas Senior and 2nd Grade 40 over competitions this Saturday with both grades starting at 12.30pm at Horton and Oliver Parks.