TPL teams out of contention for play-offs
Wairau player Josh Harris drives through the off side in his side's second grade clash with Wairau Valley Blue at Horton Park on Saturday. Photos Peter Jones.
The tough times continued for Marlborough’s representatives in the Tasman Premier League cricket competition at the weekend.
Both the Falcons and Dolphins headed over the hill to Nelson on Saturday and came away with heavy defeats.
Falcons saw their slim chance of making the TPL play-offs evaporate when they lost by seven wickets to WTTU at Jubilee Park, while the Dolphins went down by eight wickets to Stoke Nayland at Marsden Rec.
Both visiting sides were put in to bat.
The Falcons scored 104 from 31.3 overs, Joel Lavender with 35 from 54 balls the best of the batsmen, Sam Young’s 19 the second-best score. Sam Baxendine claimed the remarkable figures of 4-8 from five overs to lead the WTTU attack.
The home side made no race of the run chase, their opening partnership between Bryn Thurlow (37 from 30) and Carl Quinn (38 from 31) producing 73 runs to end any hopes the Falcons had of an unlikely victory. WTTU reached 105-3 in the 16thover, Luke Pannell claiming two wickets for the visitors.
The Dolphins demise was even more complete. They scored just 61 in 24.5 overs, Josh Poole’s 15 runs from 35 balls the top score, then the hosts raced to their winning target in just 7.3 overs, for the loss of just two wickets.
Jared Silvester and Tim Wilson both took three wickets for Stoke Nayland, Nic Clark top scoring with 39 from 24.
Other winners were the unbeaten Wolves, who beat ACOB by seven wickets, and Wakatu who downed Nelson College by six wickets, completing a good day for teams batting second.
