Another wet Saturday conspired to ruin everybody's cricket with 8 of the 9 games getting underway but 5 of these later being abandoned as conditions deteriorated. The Women's road-trip down to Ashburton was cancelled altogether. Three teams reached a conclusion as MP Accessman 4B managed a win by rolling Richmond Blue for 66 and chasing it down for the loss of 4 wickets. MP LBJ 3D only managed 73 and were beaten and MP Bishop Brothers Presidents were soundly trounced attempting to chase 223.

With only two weeks now left in the season we can only hope that the weather provides a suitable end to 2016/17.

Support Merivale-Papanui Cricket Club - Order your 2017/2018 Entertainment Book Now! ...

Dear Members,

This year, MPCC is selling the Entertainment Book to improve fundraising for the club. The Entertainment Book provides deals for a wide range of local activities and venues, and the club receives 20% of each book (or digital membership) sold. Deals include 2-for-1 or 25% off on a wide range of restaurants, cafes, sports and entertainment, so if you use just a few of the deals through the year, you should more than make your money back, while helping the club to fundraise for new equipment. I know some of you have used the Entertainment Book in the past, and for those of you who have not, there's more information below. I'm happy to try to answer any questions you might have. So if you're thinking about buying a copy of the Entertainment Book for this year, please support the club by buying it from the MPCC order page (you can reach that by following the link below)!

Click here to view the MPCC Order Page (Please share the link with friends and family).

Cheers, Dave Monger

President, Merivale-Papanui CC

MPCC Poker Night (Saturday 18th March) ...

A Poker Night will be held this Saturday at the clubrooms beginning after team speeches. $30 buy-in plus limited $20 re-buys for all who would like to participate.

Owls vs Hawks (Sunday 26th March) ...

Can the Hawks defend the "Roost" after their 2016 victory or will the Owls take back what they see as rightfully theirs?? The 2017 edition of Owls vs Hawks will decide this year's bragging rights and is scheduled for Sunday 26th March @ Edgar Mac with a start time of 1:00pm. Joel Singer in his final year as a Hawk will captain the Under 30's with Andy Mayo sorting the Owls as the Over 30's seek redemption!! Teams will be advised as soon as they are confirmed.

Subs Reminder ...

Thank you onca again to all those that have paid their Subs for this season, some good progress has been made in the last few weeks. Unfortunately there are still a number of players throughout the grades who need to get theirs organised and the Club would greatly appreciate these being paid ASAP. There has been plenty of publicity and reminders right throughout the season so there are no excuses for those that havn't yet paid. Get them sorted before the end of the season!!

• Please contact club Treasurer, John Costello via email at jayceenz@hotmail.com  if you have any issue or queries.
• When paying your subs by Internet Banking the clubs 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.

Match Reports from Saturday 11th March ...

MP Bishop Brothers Sen.A vs LP-Addington @ Edgar Mac 1 (2 Day)(1st Innings Win/Draw)

Having secured first innings points last week, we turned up this week hoping to push on for the outright win against LP-Addington. We started at 4-1 with Ben Mayo and James "The Contributor" Duncan. Progress was slow for the first few overs before Comet came alive and started dispatching the duo of Ben Cochrane and Eddie Templeton to the boundary at will, he played some punishing drives and some delicate/delicious dabs but just as he was asserting his dominance he was bowled by a ball that made Shane Warne's "ball of the century" look like a stock ball. Eddie Templeton extracted drift and spin to cannon into Comets off stump sending him on his way for 22. Despite this being a pretty important contribution he was clearly quite disappointed with getting a start and not pushing on from there, he and Rory Hawes are now clashing heads and are debating which of the 2 have had better looking starts this year, with Kyle Sloane bringing up a distant third. This brought the form batsman, Scooter to the crease. He and Ben were ticking it over easy enough before Ben was given some questionable advice and was out caught for 30 trying to clear the Bowling Club (obviously he's been watching too much of Joel Singer in the nets). Eddie Commons came to the crease but was caught at slip for 1 and all of a sudden we were in a touch of strife. We needn't have worried though as the clutch pair of Scooter and Andy Mayo went about their work in quick time. But just as Scooter looked set for a 3rd consecutive 50 he was again the victim of the commentators curse and nicked off for 46. Mitch Dimond came to the crease and looked positive from the outset however Renee on the sidelines didn't have the same optimism and decided to leave instead of watching Mitch slog his way to a quick 30 odd, clearly he bats better when she isn't around. The first innings hero Sam Gillespie came to the crease and he was brought down to earth as Scooter declared (173 for 6) before he could face a ball, Andy Mayo was also at the other end on 28 not out. This declaration set Addington 198 to win.

The 4th innings only lasted 15 odd overs but that was long enough for Nathan Columbus to nip out 2 wickets in 2 balls. However Tacky at the other end had no luck and the Addington 3 and 4 counterattacked in the ever dampening conditions and hit their way to 63-2 before the persistent rain called player safety into question and we were called off due to rain. Disappointed to only come away with the draw after two pretty dominant days of cricket however the weather took the outright win and we had to settle for first innings points. On to Heathcote next week! An outright win would put us on the pole position to claim the combined trophy!

Click here to view the match scorecard on CricHQ.

Cheers, Rory "Specialist Fielder" Hawes.

MP Cason Kerbing 2B vs Hornby @ Denton 1 (2 Day)(1st Innings Loss/Draw)

We began day 2 53 runs behind with Hornby to start their second innings. One change to the team saw Craig Dacombe return in place of the sick Taylor McLellan. We arrived to find the covers still on the pitch, but once they were removed at about 9.45 we found a reasonably dry centre of the pitch and got underway on time. Ryan Hawkins and Jacob Wilson got us off to a good start with the ball, which might have been even better if Dave Monger hadn’t crept in too far at mid-on and failed to get back to grab a leading edge. As it was, we picked up our first wicket in the 11th over when Jacob bowled Waters. Ryan followed suit a couple of overs later to make it 2-24, and then had last week’s best batsman, James Hornbrook, caught by Dan Fogden at mid-off to leave Hornby 3-38. Jacob (1-22 off 8) was replaced by Chris McCloy, who settled into a decent rhythm after a loose first over, while Dave took over from Ryan (2-15 off 10). Westenberg and Brice built a bit of a partnership before Dave had Westenberg caught behind by Ash Reddy to make it 4-59, and then trapped Dave Kennett LBW in his next over. 5-76 then became 6-76 when Brice hit a catch to Pankaj Bhagat off Rosie (1-50 off 10), before Rosie then took another catch at point off Dave’s bowling to leave Hornby 7-92. Hornby went in at lunch on about 108. After the break, Beecroft and Johannsen came out having been given a handful more overs to add to the score, and did just that, adding 49 runs off 4 overs. Dave (3-50 off 9) had the pleasure of bowling two of those overs, Rosie one, and Tribhuvan Sharma (0-17) unfortunately got the last over before the declaration at 7-157. For the second week running we were disappointed to put Hornby in a difficult position with the bat only to see their lower order stretch out the score. We were thus set 211 to win with about three and a half hours of play still theoretically possible.

          By the time our batting innings started, light rain had been falling for an hour or so, and continued for the rest of the day. We opened up with Ash and Dakesy, who got us off to a solid enough start before Ash was out LBW for 15 in the 15th over. Unfortunately, this led to a dreadful passage of play as we lost five wickets in four overs, with Dakesy bowled for 6, PK caught at point for 4, Mitch Dwyer nicking off for 4 and Kyle Sloane regretting his rain card decision after a 2nd-ball LBW for 0. Suddenly we were 5-32 after 18 overs, with Sharma emerging from one of his lengthy sessions in the toilet to strap on the pads and join Honey Monster at the crease. Kennett (3-12 off 11) and Johannsen (2-12 off 5) did the damage. However, as the rain got heavier and more persistent, Honey Monster and Boy George put together a resilient partnership over half an hour or so to get through to the tea break with no more damage done at 5-53. After the break, with the rain continuing to fall steadily, Clarkey bowled himself and Craig Waters and we added a few more runs, including Honey Monster dispatching a head-high full toss for 6. At this point, I suggested to Clarkey that, with the rain showing no sign of easing or stopping and a bowler with a one-step run-up unable to keep the ball under control, it was time to call it a day. While he and the other Hornby players weren’t very happy with this, that’s what we did, with our innings ending at 5-82, with Honey Monster 22* off 57 and Sharma 16* off 32 – another good contribution from Boy George, who managed to work his way all the way down to no. 11 earlier in the season and has now pushed himself back up to the lower middle order with good application.

          So a disappointing draw in the end, which will leave us a handful of points behind Hornby, who play the leading side, Burnside, in the final round. If Burnside didn’t get a win against St Albans before the rain intervened, we’re still in with an outside chance of finishing up at the top, but will need to put in our best and most consistent performance in the final two weeks against the OBC ex-2A side. Player of the day was Ryan for his excellent 10-over spell which not only produced wickets at his own end but created pressure that opened up opportunities for the other bowlers.

Click here to view the match scorecard on CricHQ.

          Dave M.

MP Accessman 3A vs Marist-Harewood @ Redwood 1 (Draw)

MP Little Brown Jug 3D vs Sydenham Cardinals @ Centennial 2 (Loss)

On a rather moist day at Centennial Park the 3Ds arrived for a must win encounter against the Sydenham Cardinals if we were to have a chance to make the Final. With a few key players out for numerous reasons Matt Arscott was given his first 3D cap. After winning the toss and it looking like raining later on Captain Songer decided to have a bat on what looked like a semi decent surface. Rochie and Andy opened up as usual and got off to a poor start as Andy was out playing a reverse sweep straight to gully off the opening bowler to be out for a duck. As with 3D traditions the next man (Nick) in was quickly out caught at mid-off for 0 trying to hit over the top. This brought in Matt who looked very nervous on debut. He and Rochie scratched a few singles and tried to steady the ship. Unfortunately, having avoided playing him in our first fixture, third grade legend Ben Larter was brought in to bowl. He bowled with brute pace swinging the ball miles and on a pitch like this neither batter really had a chance, Rochie (17) was out next when he snuck off to the keeper off a ball which would have been pushing the 160kmh mark, Arscott (15) quickly followed . Sri was out next over trying to scoop Larts for a duck and Sam was caught soon after for not many. This brought in 3D inform player Joel Singer. Unfortunately, the conditions really restrained the beast and he quickly succumbed to Lart’s seductive ways. Our Merivale version of Amir (Sanjay) then linked up with Tom Mitchell (or Kyle, not quite sure) and they went about a semi recovery. Just as it looked like we would post a defendable total Tom was out caught at bat pad trying to sweep a pace bowler. Songer came in at 10 and got a second ball duck which bought Ronald “The Don” Khuu to the middle who once again proved his class with another not out score, showing that he is in fact a genuine allrounder. Sanjay finished with about 20 and the team ended being 73 all out in the 24th over.

Coming out to bowl the lads were confident in their bowling and started off bowling very tight. Tom got the first wicket with a ripping leg break to get the opener out caught. Sanjay then followed up with a thigh high full toss that was caught at square leg by the new guy Arscott. With the ball getting a little wet the boys started to drop it like a bar of soap in the showers. With a slip catch and keepers catch going down. Tom had a trundle in and got pumped in his first over but came back well to finish on 0-21 off 5. Ronnie got one to roll along the ground to get a nice bowled and then bowled a long hop down leg that was caught with a one-handed dive by wicket keeper Micheal Rochford. This was the start of a solid partnership between Sydenham’s 2 left handers who took the game away from us. With 7 runs to win Songer decided to give what looked like Ronnie a go at the other end much to the confusion of the umpires but it turned out to be Sam. He bowled some dribble that was basically unplayable in the wet conditions and picked up 2-5 off 2 overs.  Sydenham ended up winning by 4 wickets in a disappointing effort by the team. With that result the finals dream is over but it would still be good to finish on a high with the remaining 2 games. MOTM goes to Arscott for stepping up and really looking as if he belonged at this level of cricket.

Click here to view the match scorecard on CricHQ.

Jono.

MP 4B Rebels vs Southern Districts @ Edgar Mac 2 (Draw)

MP Accessman 4B vs Richmond Blue @ St Albans 1 (Win)

MP Bishop Brothers Presidents vs BWU Foxes @ Burnside 4 (Loss)

A nice drizzly day at Burnside Park where the Bishop Brothers Pressies turned up to take on the Foxes. The obligatory lost toss for Mayo and we were asked to field, steady start from MP collecting 4 wickets in the first 15 for the cost of 51 (Marty C 20, Kennedy 9 (Price/Muzz Runout), Grant 10 and Turner 11). Crash (40) and JR (49) set about smashing anything loose from the change bowlers compiling an 80 run partnership, taking all the wind out of the sails as the drizzle got steadily worse. Pinch hitting from the middle to lower order blew out the score to 223 as the ball turned into a bar of soap, everyone contributing (Buchanan 15, McInnes 14, Burrows 24 and Gibson 23*) except poor Steve Twaddell on a hiding to nothing and getting the last ball to face and having it pin back middle stump. All our lads got a bit of stick but did come away with one or two wickets each, Paul 8/1/32/2, Cam 8/0/41/2, Winz  8/0/49/2, Pickle 8/1/34/1 (17 off the last) and Badger 4/0/38/1 (20 something off the last).

Batting wise, we were obviously not interested at all and it reflected in the paltry total of 43 (4 ducks, 3 of which golden) as a hit out mentality was employed and spectacularly failed, lasting all of 10.4 overs, Paul and Cam the only two over double figures (11 and 12 respectively).  All four bowlers cashing in Burrows 4/2/6, Gibson 4/3/25, Roy 1.4/3/4 and Twaddell 1/2/7. If conditions had been marginally better we might of had a truer reflection of the game but thems the breaks, hopefully the weather picks up its socks for the final 2 rounds.

Click here to view the match scorecard on CricHQ.

Cheers Pickle.

MP Identity Signs Presidents vs ECS Gold @ Burwood 2 (Draw)

Click here to view the match scorecard on CricHQ.

MP Featherstones Dairy Women Div.1 vs ECS-Ashburton @ Ashburton 1 (Abandoned)

MPCC Draw for Saturday 18th March 2017 ...

• MP Bishop Brothers Sen.A vs Heathcote @ Heathcote 1 (2 Day)
• MP Cason Kerbing 2B vs OBC @ Edgar Mac 1 (2 Day)
• MP Accessman 3A vs Sydenham Punjab XI @ Edgar Mac 2
• MP LBJ 3D vs Lancaster Park Vipers @ Barrington 1
• MP 4B Rebels vs The Wanderers @ St Albans 3
• MP Accessman 4B vs Richmond Gold @ St Albans 2
• MP Bishop Brothers Presidents vs Sydenham Cardinals @ Sydenham 3
• MP Identity Signs Presidents vs St Albans  @ Polo 1a
• MP Featherstones Dairy Women Div.1 vs OBC @ Nunweek 1

MPCC Subs for 2016/17 ...

• Mens Subs for Season 2016/17 … Men’s full subs to remain at $240 for a season if fully paid by 12 November, 2016 or if an AP has been established by 12 November, 2016. The club's bank account number is 03 0866 0269318 000, use your name and mention "subs" in the reference. Otherwise the subscription to be increased to $280 for late payment. ($120 for students and team captains, or $160 for late payment).
• Womens Subs for Season 2016/17 … Women’s full subs to remain at $130 for a season ($65 for students) if fully paid by 12 November, 2016 or if an AP has been established by 12 November, 2016. The club's bank account number is 03 0866 0269318 000, use your name and mention "subs" in the reference. Late payment would incur a further $40.

Internet Banking ...When paying your subs by Internet Banking ...The clubs 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.

Facebook ... Both the Senior and Junior sections of MPCC can be found on Facebook ....

• Click Here for Merivale Papanui Cricket Club
• Click Here for Merivale Papanui Junior Cricket Club
• Be sure to "LIKE" both pages.

If you have any queries send us an email to mpcricket@xtra.co.nz