Nelson cricketers seize control

Nelson’s rep cricketers gained the upper hand in matches both home and away against their Marlborough male and female counterparts on Sunday.

At Horton Park the women’s side, playing for the newly-presented Hiwa I Te Rangi Trophy for forthcoming competition between the two sides, lost by two wickets to their counterparts in a 40-over match, while, at Saxton Oval, the men’s team went down by seven wickets in a 50-over Newman Shield clash.

The Marlborough women, inserted by the Nyxons, made a good fist of their batting effort, five players making handy contributions. Carly Englefield, 28 from 22, Megan Sandford, 32 from 36, Eva Davey, 32 from 33 before retiring, Pania Dallarosa, 23 from 30, and Vicky Underwood, 21 from 33, all chipped in as the home reached 177 in 34.1 overs. Their cause was helped by 27 extras. The Gaging twins, both CD Hinds representatives, were among the wickets, Kate bagging 3-7 from 3.1 overs, Anna 2-36 from eight. Summa Pratt took 2-35 from eight.

Nelson’s reply got off to a shaky start, Stella Cornelius dismissing Anna Gaging early on to have the Nyxons struggling at 3-38. However, this was Kate Gaging’s day, the classy opener batting through until the 37th over, by which time the visitors had the match in their grasp, needing just 12 runs from the final three overs. She was eventually dismissed for 85 from 115 balls, the next best score being 12 from Lily Clark, although the 50 extras conceded played a big part in the home side’s inability to defend a handy score.

Four bowlers produced remarkably similar figures from their eight overs, Eden Pettigrew taking 2-26, Cornelius 2-26, Courtney Bowen, 2-29, and Davey 2-27.

Given the pedigree of their opponents, Marlborough will be buoyed by the nature of the contest, hinting at the foundation of a very competitive rep unit.

Nelson also won the toss in the men’s match, inserting Marlborough, who made a very steady start.

Openers Andrew McCaa and Corey Bovey took the score through to 99 in the 24th over before Bovey went for 46 from 71. McCaa carried on, alongside Matthew Stretch, to push on to 152 before he fell for 67 from 111 balls.

Stretch formed solid, but small, partnerships with Luke Holdaway, 13, and Tom Sutherland, 10, before being dismissed for 66 from 65 in the 49th over with the score at 231. Eventually Marlborough were forced to settle for a total of 244-6, with a strong bowling and fielding effort now required to defend it on a batting-friendly wicket.

Nelson lost an early wicket but consolidated through Jonty Raxworthy, 32 from 44, and Finn Restieaux, 55 from 47, who moved the score along briskly. Restieaux’s departure with the score at 121 in the 23rd over brought the pair of Ronan Restieaux and Finn Raxworthy together and they proved unshakeable, Raxworthy ending on an unbeaten 79 from 93 and Restieaux not out 65 from 66 as the home side wrapped the match, reaching 245-3 in the 44th over.

Marlborough used 10 bowlers, most going for more than five-runs-per-over. Holdaway, Sutherland and Weaver grabbing the only wickets to fall as the rep season concluded on a disappointing note.

Club cricket

Meanwhile, wins to Renwick and Wairau marked the latest round of the SBS senior 40-over cricket competition on Saturday.

Renwick maintained their unbeaten run in the competition with a three-wicket victory over the Falcons, while Wairau eked out a one-wicket win over Wairau Valley.

Falcons batted first on Horton Park three, scoring 215 before being dismissed in the 38th over. An opening stand of 103 between Ben Holdaway, who scored 49, and Tom Sutherland, with 54, promised plenty for Falcons but a steady loss of wickets saw them struggle to pass the 200-run mark.

Fred Sululoto, 2-42 from eight, Nathan Brooke-Taylor, 2-39 from eight and Kieran Gaudin, 2-20 from five, claimed the majority of the wickets.

Renwick struggled early in their reply before Rikki Bovey, 48, and Luke Frankland, with an unbeaten 82, made sure the Green Machine held on to their unbeaten record. Ian Crawshaw took 3-21 for Falcons.

Meanwhile, on the number one ground, Wairau played their ‘Get out of Jail Free’ card against Wairau Valley, a 54-run last wicket partnership propelling them to victory.

Chasing 147 for the win Wairau were in deep trouble, losing their eighth wicket with just 71 runs on the board. However, there was fight in the tail. Luke Petrie joined the vastly-experienced Tarin Mason and the pair put on 22 valuable runs before Petrie departed.

Then, number 11 batter Zariab Karkaria joined Mason and the pair combined to frustrate Valley, scoring the winning runs in the 37th over. Mason was left unbeaten on 56 from 88 balls, while Karkaria was 23 not out from 44.

Harry Campbell, 3-41 from eight, Lachie MacNeill, 2-11 from three, and Sam Boyce, 2-16 from eight, were the most successful Valley bowlers.

Batting first, Valley scored a modest 147-8, Cambell opening up with 33 from 68, Matthew Stretch scoring 36 from 31 and Jordan Alford 33 from 23 in the latter part of their innings. Chief destroyers were Baxter Croad, 3-35 from eight, and Nick Weaver, 2-27 from eight.