A President’s shout looked like it may be on the cards at one stage on Saturday evening, only for a couple of results to go the way of the opposition. Nonetheless, 6 out of 8 victories isn’t bad! Some outstanding individual efforts along the way, including a first club 5-for and hat-trick for Jack Farries and a 10th career 5-wicket haul for Sam Gillespie.

Check out a couple of photos on our Facebook page of our young import, Leo Spilsbury, helping out at the England and New Zealand nets ahead of this week’s test match.

Good to see from Mike Beattie’s report that he’s finally starting to acknowledge cricket superstitions, as many clubmates have insisted he should for several years!

Unfortunately, St Albans got the better of our Chairman's Cup team, chasing down 156 with a couple of overs to spare. Good luck to them in the final.

Subscriptions for the 2024/25 season – Final warning re. subs increase.

Remember, 30 November is the last day to pay your subs or establish an arrangement with the Treasurer before the discounted rate ends. Anyone who has still not covered their subs by this date will be liable for a $100 increase.

Senior club subscriptions for the 2024/25 season are set at $260 ($130 for students/apprentices) if paid, or if an AP is established in writing with the club's Treasurer, before 30 November 2024. Late subscription rates are charged at $360 (or $230 for students/apprentices). You are welcome to get in touch with the Treasurer, Michael Beattie, by speaking to him at the clubrooms, via a Facebook message to him or by email at beattie852@hotmail.co.nz if you need to make an arrangement around payments.

Players joining the club from high school in their first season are not required to pay a subscription.

As always when paying your subs by Internet Banking ...

• The club's bank account details are:
• Westpac 03 0866 0269318 000
• Merivale Papanui Cricket Club Inc
• When making a transfer please state your full name as a reference.

Thanks to our sponsors

As always, A huge thank you to our club and team sponsors, Sporting Edge, BBS Timbers, Bombay Tandoor, The Brewers, Burger Station, ITM Dyers Road and VIP Trade for your continuing support of Merivale Papanui CC. Your generous help makes a massive difference to the cricketing experience we can provide to our junior and adult members this season.

Meat raffles at The Brewers

Every Friday evening during the season, MPCC is selling meat raffles at our sponsor, The Brewers, in Merivale. All teams will take a couple of turns doing the selling - this week Div 6 are on selling duty. All club members are encouraged to head down at 5.30 support the raffles and our sponsor and get in some pre-match predictions for Saturday's games.

MPCC Golf Day - save the date

This year's golf day has been scheduled for Sunday 26 January - further details to follow, but keep the date free!

Congratulations to Burger Station Div 2 Black player, Jack Farries, who had a memorable second day in his team’s outright win over Sumner, picking up 5-25 off 10 overs for his maiden club 5-for. Even better, his third, fourth and fifth wickets were collected as part of his maiden club hat-trick!

Congratulations to Sporting Edge Championship spinner, Sam Gillespie, who picked up 5-47 off 16 overs in the second innings of his side’s outright victory over Halswell. This was Sam’s 6th Senior 5-for and 10th overall in his MPCC career.

Congratulations to Sporting Edge Div 2 Red batter, Shane Wills, whose 72 anchored his team’s 2nd innings and set them up for outright victory over New Brighton.

Congratulations to Div 4’s Akki Ricky, whose 93* vs New Brighton steered his team to victory.

Congratulations to NWY 1st XI player, Jasper Welford, who followed up a half-century last week with 104 vs CBHS 2nd XI.

Congratulations to Ollie Upjohn, who also hit a century this week, scoring 103 for the NWY 2nd XI vs STAC.

Congratulations to Ollie Fifield, who hit 66 in the same game.

Congratulations to NWY 3rd XI Green skipper, Preston Williams, who took 5-31 in his side’s defeat to Riccarton High School.

Congratulations to Daniel Mead, of the NWY Year 9C side, who hit 76 vs Rolleston College in a commanding win for his team.

Congratulations to Luke Spicer, whose 63 in the same game added to his team’s strong batting innings.

Congratulations to Muhammad Haroon, who hit 63 off 50 balls in his NWY Year 9B side’s win over St Bedes.

Match Reports from Saturday 23rd November

MP Sporting Edge Prems vs Halswell @ Edgar Mac 1 (Two Day – Day 2: 1st innings win/outright win)

The day started off according to plan with the intention of batting very positively in the first 10 overs of the day to capitalise on our small lead from last week. With some quick fire runs at the end of the innings, we finished on 172-9 dec, with a healthy lead of 70. 

The bowlers struggled to start off with. The pitch flattened out very quickly and the opening pair batted well with an opening stand of 81. With the ball getting old, they ended up 1 wicket down at lunch, with Harry taking the first wicket. After lunch we toiled hard and fought back well with the ball and wickets started to fall frequently. Halswell ended up going from 150-1 after lunch to 242-9. A very good effort from the bowlers with the pitch being so flat we did very well to get them 242-9, before they declared. Sammy G, the stand-out bowler taking a 5 wicket haul, with figures of 16-4-47-5. Halswell set us a target of 173 to chase down in 39 overs.

Wez and Alex started off strongly before tea. With Wez scoring a quickfire 22 off 13 balls our openers set our innings up nicely going into the break. Alex continued his good form scoring 34. The top order batsman gave our middle order a nice platform to finish the chase, with all our middle order chipping in with scores of 20 from Harry, 22 from Woolfy and 26 from Leo, who all managed to set good partnerships through the middle. Louis and Roz were there to finish it at the end with Roz scoring 34* off 24 balls and Louis scoring 5* off 10 and hitting the winning runs. Good to open our account with our first outright win of the season with a great all-round performance with everybody contributing. Onto the T20s next week. 

Leo

MP Sporting Edge Div.2 Red vs OBC @ Elmwood (Two Day, Day 2: 1st innings win/outright win)

After a day 1 washout against OBC, the seconds were keen to take as many points as possible out of the second day’s play in our last two-day game before the change of formats. We lost the toss and were put in to bat for a mutually agreed 5 over first innings each. Caleb Cottom got us off to a good start, ending 25* off 15 supported by Sloane (0), Ash (10) and Gilly (7) – first innings ending on 46. Beattie and Nath started off, going for 16 off the first two overs, before Robbo came on and bowled two good overs taking 1/13 off his 2, Beattie came on at the other end to bowl the fourth going wicketless in his two overs, 0/10 off 2. Nath 0/11 off his one. MP won first innings as OBC only managed 36.

Looking to set a total we could bowl at a bit later, we started with a more regular opening pair of Tom Music & Shane Wills, who got us off to a decent start before Tom was the first man to go for 14 with the score at 27/1. There were sprinkled contributions throughout our batting innings with Caleb (16), Sloane (11) and Robbo (18) all providing valuable support to Shane, who was the only one who managed to bat more than 30 balls and made a really well compiled 72 to give us 181/9(d) in our second innings, a lead of 191 with about 43 overs to bowl OBC out. Nathan Columbus also managed to finally reach 200 runs for the club, and then went on to hit a couple more boundaries for good measure!

In to bowl, we started off with Beattie and Nathan, OBC starting steadily, going about at about the required rate when Nathan got our first wicket in the 6th over. Beattie struggled a little at the end defending the short Elmwood boundary (as did all bowlers who bowled at that end), and we quickly went to the spin twins in George & Hamish, with George picking up his first MPCC wicket after a good OBC partnership having them at 85/2 after 18. At the drinks break for the final innings OBC were 2/105, needing 87 off 21 overs we were behind the eight ball, George picked up another valuable wicket shortly after drinks to have OBC 111/3 (one for you Dave, a wicket on Nelson!). We managed to really swing the game in our favour in the 27th and 28th over, starting with Beattie taking a triple wicket maiden in the 27th, followed by George picking up another two wickets in the 28th – OBC went from 124/3 to 130/8 in about 10 minutes of mayhem. From here they looked to shut up shop, with their tail end showing some strong fight before Nathan nicked off number 10 in the 33rd over shortly afterwards, blowing his hammy in the process. Beattie came along with a couple of changes at the other end between the spin twins to try and wrap things up, and we managed to do so in the 39th over. A really good day’s play from the guys; tough work making an outright result happen in a day but plenty of highlights for us, Shane a very well made 72 seeing plenty of guys fall around him making sure we had something to bowl at, then all of the bowlers and fielders putting in 100% to defend it, even when we were on the back foot. George ending up with 4/47, Beattie with 4/35 and Nath with 2/17 as the wicket takers. It’s a congested table in our grade, so going into the white ball games there will be a couple of big games, with only 7-8 points separating the top 5 teams currently.

Michael

MP Div 2 Black vs Sumner @ St Leonards (Two Day, Day 2: first innings win/outright win)

First day saw our side filled up with Masters and Div 7 players, which as usual we were hugely grateful for. We batted first and made 207 after a magnificent 85 from Mark Hume and an explosive 18 from Rakesh at the top of the order and 20 from Himanshu (SR 181.81). We then were able to restrict Sumner to 167/8. Great bowling by Petros (3-for) and Bellsy (5-for).

Day 2 saw Ranjith and Mario open. The best batting from Ranjith (34) that I have every witnessed got us off to a rollicking start. We lost our way a bit in the middle of the innings before a great 40* from Bellsy (who ran out of partners) got us through to 164, leaving Sumner 204 in 47 overs.

They got runs we got wickets. 2 for Himanshu and 2 for Basa (2 catches for Dave M). After Himanshu finished, young Jack Farries came on. He got into a nice rhythm and was dotting it up quite nicely. As Basa brilliantly says, “1 brings 2”, well in Jack’s case 1 brought 5 !!! Including a hat-trick. As Bellsy said to me later, “seeing the big smile on Jack’s face makes captaining a team all worthwhile” (or something along those lines). His mum was pretty stoked too! Jack finished with 5/25 and Bellsy finished Sumner off to have them all out for 130. Love the competition between Dad (Richard) and son (Callum) over who covers the most ground during the game. Richard won this week. Mario was very happy to sing OUR MP SONG with the team. The game played in good spirits, so thanks Sumner.

Darren

MP Div 4 vs New Brighton @ Rawhiti (Win)

It was a great game. We won by 1 wicket against New Brighton. Our opener Akki was not out 93 and vice-captain Mahesh scored 28 in a nice partnership with Akki for a good start. After Mahesh was out wickets fell quickly, but Akki managed the other end. New Brighton 179/3. MP 184/9.

Prakash

MP Div 6 Panthers vs Prebbleton @ Prebbleton (Win)

The Panthers travelled to Prebbleton this week for their Div 6 clash. Skipper Andy A lost the toss, and the Panthers were put into the field. With only eight players present at the scheduled start time, Prebbleton graciously allowed a short delay for late arrivals. Once at full strength, the Panthers took to the field, with Max and Sunny opening the bowling. Andy A, nursing a back injury, opted out of bowling duties. The first breakthrough came through first change bowler Harsha, who snared a wicket with a sharp caught behind by Dean. The Panthers' bowling unit kept the pressure on, maintaining tight lines and ensuring Prebbleton couldn't accelerate. At the halfway mark, Prebbleton were 2/74 and concluded their innings at 142 from 40 overs. The Panthers' fielding was a highlight, with eight catches taken, despite a few drops. Sunny led the attack with three wickets, while Harsha and Steve claimed two each. Max and Isuka chipped in with a wicket apiece.

Chasing 143 for victory, openers Andy R and Dean faced a daunting task against a Southland Hawke Cup representative, the fastest bowler in our grade. Andy R rose to the challenge, expertly guiding the extra pace over the slips. Dean, however, fell LBW after a gutsy innings, which included being struck on the helmet. Max and Joel followed but couldn’t settle against the spin attack, both edging to the keeper and slips, respectively. Glen then took charge, playing with authority and dispatching loose deliveries with powerful pull shots. His partnership with Andy R kept the Panthers in the hunt until Andy R was caught and bowled for a well-crafted innings. Andy A came in and played a supporting role to Glen, who was in sublime touch. Glen’s aggressive 36-run knock ended when he was trapped LBW. Sunny contributed a quick cameo before falling to a high catch. With only 15 runs needed, Conner joined Andy A, but the captain was bowled with six runs still required. Unfazed, Conner and Isuka held their nerve, guiding the Panthers home with 3.5 overs to spare. This hard-fought victory, the third one on the bounce, will give us even more confidence going into next week's fixture.

Andy A

MP BBS Timbers Div 7 vs The Wanderers @ Edgar Mac 2 (Win)

The BBS Timbers Div 7 team were up against the old foes The Wanderers at the Old Trafford of the Edgar Mac grounds, #2. It has always been a great contest between us in the past, with the upper hand swinging from season to season. Could we continue the good form we showed in our first win of the season in our last outing, or would we be brought down to earth quicker than Nana dropping a pie? Peruse on, dear readers.

It didn’t get off to a great start with Nana losing the toss, and The Wanderers choosing to bat first on a grassy yet dry and hard pitch. Barrel and man of the moment Blake opened up for us, and did a great job of keeping the batsmen relatively contained. They were unable to make a breakthrough, however, so Goutam and Frosty were brought in. Frosty had an immediate impact, breaking though in his first over – 41/1 after 9. After a bit of a wonky first over, Goutam then really had the ball on a string, and both he and Frosty tied the batsmen down, with the next 9 overs only going for 21 runs. Another change in the bowlers saw another breakthrough in the first ball of the 19^th over from Ayan, with their most dangerous batsman to that point being run out by some excellent work from Frosty in the field and Nana, 62/2. The Wanderers got through to drinks with no further loss, 68/2. Straight after drinks Ayan struck, and they were 68/3.

Goutam was replaced after a fine spell of bowling with Amen, who had an immediate impact, snaring his first wicket for the club with his second (legitimate) delivery, 88/4. The Wanderers then consolidated somewhat, and the runs came steadily, but not at a fast clip. It wasn’t until the 32^nd over before Frosty finally made the vital breakthrough, 127/5. There was then somewhat of a mini collapse, with Frosty taking another in that same over, 128/6. Kieran, who up until that point had been bowling with some venom and accuracy, finally got some just rewards for his endeavours, taking two in the next over, reducing The Wanderers to 128/8. That was as good as it got for us though, with The Wanderers seeing out their 40 overs with no further losses, the innings ending on 155/8. It was possibly a few more runs that we would have ideally liked, but it was total that was perfectly achievable on a pretty good track so long as we batted well. Pick of the bowlers was Frosty with an impressive 3/13 from his 8. Kieran was a real handful with 2/27 from 6, Ayan was economical for his 1/18 from 6, and Amen chipped in with 1/19 from 2. Sam bowled well with no joy with 0/23 from 6, young Charan who we had filling in for us bowled well in his only over, 0/4, Goutam deserved a better return with regards to wickets in his 0/34 from 8, and Blake returned 0/16 from his 3.

So, our turn to bat. A bit of a change at the top, with Nana dropping down to give Kieran an opportunity opening with my good self. And, well, much to everyone’s surprise (my own more than anyone else’s) we got off to quite the rollicking start. 10 runs off each of the 1^st and 3^rd overs, including 4 boundaries, saw us on 21/0 after 3. I then inexplicably missed a straight one, out for 19 – 21/1. The run rate then slowed down somewhat, with Kieran and Tim soaking up a lot of deliveries. Tim was eventually out for the plumbiest of plumb lbws in the 11^th over for 5, 38/2. Kieran and Amen then started to pick up the run rate, seeing us through to 69 in the 16^th over before Amen was caught for 12. Kieran was out not long after that, caught for a fine 34, 74/4. Ayan and Barrel saw us through to drinks, 80/4. That partnership stayed together for a bit before Ayan was bowled for 14 in the 25^th over, 90/5. Nana, the savior, strolled out to bat. And shambled back not long after, out for 4, 98/6. Things were beginning to look a little shaky – we needed a man for the moment, a hero for the hour. We got Frosty, which is still pretty good. He and Barrel proceeded to bring us right back into the game. A combination of controlled aggression and prudent perseverance resulted in a 43 run partnership, before Barrel was caught for 36, 141/7. With 15 runs still required, Goutam was promoted as the designated pinch-hitter, and he and Frosty brought it home for us in the 39^th over. So a well-judged run chase with contributions from a number of players meant that it was a very satisfying team win.

Both the bowlers and batsmen did the job, and, importantly…we backed it up in the field. Only one dropped catch, a very good run-out, and solid ground fielding meant it was an all round performance. So the all important scorecard:

Batting: B+. Kieran aside, the top order could have contributed a few more runs maybe, and it was our middle order who did the job that Kieran started.

Bowling: B+. In general, a pretty good performance – wickets were taken at key points in the game, and at no point did things really get away from us.

Fielding: A. For the second week in a row, very little to complain about at all. A lot of commitment shown in the field to restrict the runs, a run-out and a couple of catches. Long may this continue!

Cheers

Richard

MP Masters vs St Albans @ Hagley 4 (Loss)

The Masters team played a powerful St Albans team at Hagley 4, a pitch that looked good but showed the effects of overnight rain. PK lost the toss and Merivale-Papanui were asked to bat. Rakesh Verma and Simon Bell opened in difficult conditions. The ball moved around a bit and held in the pitch too. However, they got us away to a sound start putting on 33 in 13 overs. Both battled through some very accurate bowling, shielding our batting during the most difficult conditions. Mark Hume and Campbell Crimp batted in our best partnership putting on 48 in 10 overs. At 87 for 2 off 27 overs, we were set to accelerate, however frequent wickets curtailed any late flurry of runs as we were bowled out for 135 in the 40th over. Top scorers were Mark Hume 35, Rakesh Verma 33, Steve Van Grunsven 19* and Campbell Crimp 12.

In reply, we bowled tightly, juggled the field around and with some excellent fielding which included a run out via Steve Van Grunsven to keeper Simon Bell and a sharp catch to Campbell Crimp in the gully, we had them on the ropes at 54/4 at drinks. Frankie Kokiri rattled the stumps first ball after the break and our confidence was high. Another wicket at 81 saw us hunting hard, but we were unable to get another breakthrough, despite accurate, searching bowling. St Albans passing our total in the 38th over to remain unbeaten this season. Kelum Mendis starred with the ball bowling a tight eight overs, picking up 2 for 17. Frankie Kokiri bowled his usual miserly spell, which as always was full of chat, his 6 overs netting 2 for 22. Simon Cartmell picked up 1 for 32 off his 8.

It was a frustrating loss, one we possibly let slip away, however the grit and determination by the St Albans middle order showed why they are competition leaders at the moment. Conversely, again we showed a lot of character and perseverance, dominating one of the top teams for long periods. We look forward to our next match against the Burnside Foxes at the Nursery Ground.

PK

MP Bombay Tandoor T20 vs St Albans @ Polo 1A (Loss)

Unfortunately, the T20 lads were on the wrong side of a heavy defeat this week, and haven’t had the heart to write it up!

North West Youth Cricket Results

NWY 1st XI vs CBHS 2nd XI (Loss)

NWY 242/9 (J. Welford 104; A Earl 36; H. Copeland 21)

CBHS 243/5 (A. Early 3/32)

NWY 2nd XI vs STAC 3rd XI (Win)

NWY 289/9 (O. Upjohn 103; O. Fifield 66; B. Liyana 36)

STAC 178 (J. England 3/23; S. Waddell 3/30; Y. Sharma 3/51)

NWY Colts vs St Bedes (Win)

NWY 149 (B. Jorgensen 46; J. van Amelsfort 33)

St Bedes 148 (J. Moore 4/20; T. McGowan 2/31; L. Kerr 2/37)

NWY 3rd XI Green vs Riccarton HS 1st XI (Loss)

Riccarton 220/6 (P. Williams 5/31)

NWY 193 (D. Walker 30; L. Roan 25; E. Findlay 24)

NWY 3rd XI Black vs Rangiora HS 2nd XI (Loss)

Rangiora 145 (O. Coster 2/5; D. Soysa 2/20; R. Cook 2/26)

NWY 95 (O. Grace 35)

NWY Year 9A vs St Bedes (Loss)

St Bedes 142 (O. Calhoun 2/10; A de Bock 2/18; J. Straker 2/18)

NWY 118 (A. de Bock 27)

NWY Year 9B vs St Bedes (Win)

St Bedes 157/6 (J. Clemenger 2/30)

NWY 158 (M. Haroon 63)

NWY Year 9C vs Rolleston College (Win)

NWY 304/6 (D. Mead 76; L. Spicer 63; S. Beatty 47)

Rolleston 139 (I. Jones 3/32)

Article added: Wednesday 27 November 2024