Congratulations to James "Comet" Duncan whose last run in his innings of 41 for the MP Sporting Edge Div.1 1st XI against East Chch Shirley in Sunday's Div.1 One-Day Final was his 500th run of the season. This is the 2nd time that Comet has achieved the milestone having scored exactly 500 runs in 2018/19.

  Congratulations to Mark Hume (502) who, after some stats fixing from Steve Van Grunsven that has ammended his innings of 62 off 65 balls for the MP Gold Presidents side against ECS Gold at Edgar Mac on Saturday and had him sitting on 499 runs to now be 65 off 71 balls, has now passed 500 runs (9 for Div.1 & 493 for Pressies) for the season. This is the 5th time in his MPCC career to date that Humey has achieved the milestone.

  Congratulations to Nathan Columbus who continued his bullying of the Presidents Grade batsmen Saturday taking 6 for 7 off 8 overs against Sydenham Hospital for the MP Beverage Brothers Presidents side at Bradford Park. This was his 4th five wicket bag of the season and took Nath past 50 (52 to date - 3 for Div.1 & 49 for Pressies) wickets for the season, the second time he has achieved the milestone for MPCC having been the last bowler to pass 50 when he took 54 wickets in 2017/18. Nath nearly completed the perfect match coming to the crease with the side in trouble at 119/9 chasing 152 with he and Dave Harrison (5 not-out) requiring 34 runs to pull off the win, unfortunately they managed 33 of those before Nath was out for 25 (3 x 4's & 1 x 6) on the 2nd to last ball of the game with the match tied!

  Congratulations to MP Beverage Brothers Presidents player Phil Townrow who brought up 100 Presidents grade games for MPCC in Saturdays tied match against Sydenham Hospital at Bradford Park. Towney is the 8th Pressies player to achieve the 100 game milestone and currently sits 5th on the list of Pressies wicket-takers with 105 which includes 3 x 5 wicket bags and a best of 6/39. Batting wise for Pressies he has scored 371 runs (43 x 4's & 6 x 6's) with a best of 29 to date.

MPCC Golf Tournament ...

  The Sporting Edge MPCC Golf Tournament has been scheduled for Sunday 14th March at the Burnham Golf Course (Aylesbury Road). Start Time is 8:00am, $25 per person (Teams of 4 playing Ambrose rules). Prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Longest Drive & Closest to Pin. Contact Glen "Bellsy" Bellam on 021-2444244 or email mpcricket@xtra.co.nz to enter your team.

Owls vs Hawks ...

  With the 2020 edition having to be cancelled we now look forward to the 2021 edition of the Owls vs Hawks. This match has been scheduled for Sunday 21st March at Edgar Mac (12:00pm start). Owls (Over 30's) let Dakesy know if you are keen and available to play. Hawks (Under 30's) let Jono Collins know if you are keen and available to play. Or, put your name on the board at the clubrooms.

MPCC 2020/21 Prize-Giving ...

  The 2020/21 Prize-Giving has been scheduled for Friday 9th April at the MPCC Clubrooms (Edgar Mac) starting at 7:00pm.All members and their supporters are warmly invited to attend the farewell event for the season and help celebrate the team and individual successes of Season 2020/21.

Match Report from Sunday 28th February ...

MP Sporting Edge Div.1 1st XI vs East Chch Shirley @ Burwood 1 (CMCA Div.1 One-Day Final)(Loss)

Click here to view the CricHQ Scorecard

Match Reports from Saturday 27th February ...

MP Sporting Edge Div.1 1st XI vs Halswell @ Edgar Mac 1 (2-Day)(Outright Win)

Click here to view the CricHQ Scorecard

MP Sporting Edge Div.1 2nd XI vs Heathcote @ Heathcote 1 (2-Day)(1st Inn Win/Outright Loss)

  The 2nds returned to Heathcote in a good position. We didn’t manage to make them follow on (which was never very likely), but finished off the innings in about 9 overs with a lead of 66 and Heathcote all out for 153, with Mike Beattie taking 2 wickets to end up 6-31 for the innings and Jono Collins taking 1-7 off 1.1 overs. The plan for our second batting innings was to set Heathcote a target they’d want to chase, as we needed the win. Dakesy and Kyle Bradbury got us off to a solid start again before Dakesy holed out for 5 trying to go over the top. Alex Brogan’s return was short-lived and James Duncan boofed several boundaries quickly before having a ball cut back on him to be bowled for 21 off 10. After lunch Kyle Sloan (8) handed over the ‘e’ in his name to Matt House when he tried to slog him over the field and failed, and star import Joel Singer (2) also failed to clear the fielders. This brought out Michael Thorpe with Kyle and the pair maintained a patient approach for a while before Comet issued instructions to get on with it. Thorpey moved on to 19*, while Kyle brought up his first Div 1 half-century, ending up on a very good 68*, anchoring our innings well. We declared on 136/5, leaving Heathcote 48 overs to chase 203.

  Unfortunately, our bowling let us down early on. Chris McBride was tidy from one end, but Mike, Jono and Dave were all wasteful at the other to let the openers get off to a flyer. After tea, we got a couple of wickets with a run out by Thorpey and Jono and a c+b for Dave. We had a bit more hope when Abhi Shrikande was caught by Thorpey off Chris with the score at 112 in the 27th over. However, we couldn’t break up the partnership of Nielsen and House for a while, with some catching opportunities going begging, until Alex Brogan finally had Nielsen caught in the deep. Unfortunately, House steered Heathcote home with 6 overs to spare as we were left to reflect on a very poor passage of play before tea in a game that we had controlled for most of the 2 days.

  Player of the match for us was Kyle Bradbury who soaked up over 200 balls across two innings for 106 runs, including his first Div.1 50. We look forward to his first ton against the 1sts next week!

Click here to view the CricHQ Scorecard

Dave M

MP Division 4 vs Halswell @ Halswell 2 (Win)

  MP Allstars (Div 4) took on Halswell on their turf, but our flags looked awfully good around their boundary. With 10 minutes before scheduled start, Ben finally went across to do the toss. If people look for good omen’s then Ben winning the toss (such a rarity) was one such moment. Halswell had only 7 players at the time, and so Ben put them into the field. Just kidding…!!! Ben’s good sportsmanship allowed them to bat first. Let us just say at the start that I do not like the orange ball. Bring back the red ones is my catch cry! Back to the cricket. Inconsistent was how we bowled in the first 20 overs. Matty Wilcock bowled really well but the fielding didn’t support him. We put three catches down (I dropped the first one, straight in and through (@#!* orange ball), all behind the wicket) off him yet he still finished with the respectable figures of 2/25 of his eight. Josiah who opened up with him bowled quickly but a few too many 4 bowls let the batsman off the hook, came back at the end (2^nd spell) to pick up a wicket which Ben described as a beautiful slower ball. Finished with 1/26 of 6). Halswell 45/2 after 10, and now with a full compliment of players. Ash Reddy replaced Josiah, and had the ball “hooping around”, but inconsistency dogged him too. Glen replaced Ash and bowled the 20^th. Lets just say that his next 7 went for less than his first. Mani replaced Matt after his 8 on the trot and bowled beautifully. 2^nd omen occurred when we received the benefit of the doubt with a dodgy runout decision to one of their better batsmen (who, fair to say was rather upset – threw his bat on the pitch). Halswell 88/4 at drinks. After drinks we bowled far more consistently and all bowlers did a great job, ably supported  by the fielders putting their bodies on the line. Glen (2/26 off 8), Jamie (Nana – 1/15 off 4), Mani (3/23 off 6.2) and Josiah finished off the last 6 wickets in 17 overs while conceding only 53 runs. Halswell all out 141.

  To Bat: Ross and Ash built a good solid base. Ross solid at one end with Ash a bit riskier at the other. Halswell bowled tightly but like us had the dropsies, which at drinks saw Ross and Ash still in and the score on 55. During this opening 20 overs, the 3^rd omen occurred when at Halswell’s request we replaced Mani (who wasn’t giving  them LBW’s every time the ball hit the pads) with Glen (who then diplomatically tried explaining the LBW rule to them, the next time they appealed – lets just say that Glen left the “meeting” dissatisfied that his efforts to explain/teach them, appeared to fall on deaf ears). After drinks, Ross with some “vitamins” on board started to up the tempo with his customary piercing cover drives. Not long afterwards Ash missed a straight one (47) and the opening partnership finished at 69. Great platform to launch. Jamie came, launched a couple, ran out Ross (23) and then launched one too many (12) to suddenly have us 86 for 3 (off 24) with two “newbies” at the crease in Ben and Darren. 4^th omen occurred when Darren tried to take a single which Ben didn’t want and had to drive (fall/flop) back into his crease. He looked over to Josiah, gave him the “I know I made it son, look” and received the affirmative not out….Those of you who don’t know Josiah, if he could have given his Dad out he would have (lol). From them on it was a case of Darren taking 4 balls to get a single and then Ben getting boundaries off the others. We didn’t lose any further wickets and reached the target with 3 overs to spare. Ben (32*), Darren(22*). Great result against a top 3 team.

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Darren Leigh.

MP Division 7 Gold vs Heathcote Afghan XI @ Nunweek 1 (Loss)

  While the previous week the Div 7 Gold team had had the good fortune to be moved from Nunweek to Edgar Mac, this week the reverse occurred - we were moved from Redcliffs to Nunweek, to face the Heathcote Afghan and Multicultural Associations of Canterbury team. Losing the toss is becoming a habit, even when we swap Sam B with Sam G - however, we were put into bat on a pitch that traditionally starts out horrible and gets worse from there. So - a good toss to lose. Which was proven to some extent by our opening partnership of Sammy G and Will, who put on 50 runs at a good clip before Will was caught for 19. Unfortunately that started a bit of a slide - Sam was out the very next ball for 30, and I only lasted 2 balls before being bowled for a blob. Thomas and Hemanshu put on some more quick runs before Hemanshu was caught for 7 and Thomas for 17. So we went into drinks 95/5 - a great run-rate, but too many wickets down for comfort. It didn't get much better after drinks either. Max was caught for 11, and Paul (Dearsley, our guest ring-in) stumped for 1. David and Phil offered up some resistance, with Sam McGarvey (another guest) propping up one end, before Dave was caught for 15 and Sam for 6. When Phil was stumped for 14, we were all out for 131 in the 36th over, with Malcolm not out on 0. While it was disappointing to leave so many overs on the pitch, 131 wasn't a bad result - a lot less runs have been defended in the past.

  And it looked like we would do the same in our turn to bowl. Max and Dave had the ball on a string - in fact, the first 3 overs did not concede a run, while also producing 2 wickets (one each to the bowlers) and when Heathcote lost their 3rd and 4th wickets cheaply they were well and truly in deep trouble. However, the runs started to flow, and with the loss of only one other wicket they went into drinks 101/5. Tellingly, their best batsman (had scored a ton the previous week) was still at the crease, after having been dropped very early on (a case of a skied ball with both the keeper and fielder calling for what should have been a keeper catch every day of the week - and colliding and grassing the opportunity). And further - an umpire not knowing the rules and calling a no-ball for more than two players behind square on the OFFside, with the batsman giving an easy catch. After some loud "discussions" it was declared a dead-ball - probably the right call, but still very disheartening. Especially since Heathcote kicked on after drinks. Their lead scorer was actually dropped yet again, and ended up helping them home in the 25th over, still only 5 down. Max was outstanding - 3/16 from his 8, including 6 maidens. Dave took the other 2 wickets, ending on 2/26 from his 4. Sam G turned in 0/21 from 5, Phil 0/18 from 3, Sam M 0/26 from 3 and Paul 8/18 from 1.4.

 So a loss by 5 wickets. Incredibly disappointing way to lose - our batsman did a good job with the bat, and our opening bowlers put us in a position where we should have put them away comfortably. But yet again our fielding let us down, with us simply not nailing the basics. It will be a glorious day when we manage to line up all areas of our game - I believe we would be very hard to beat if we do. Until then, however...     

Click here to view the CricHQ Scorecard

Richard J

MP Division 7 Panthers (Bye)

MP Cavaliers T20 vs Southern Districts Sandy Smiths @ Waltham 1 (Loss)

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MP Beverage Brothers Presidents vs Sydenham Hospital @ Bradford 1 (Tie)

Report provided by Aidan Hegarty (Sydenham Hospital) ...

  Sydenham Hospital Presidents entertained our friends from Merivale Papanui Beverage Brothers at Bradford Park and when I say entertained that doesn't go nearly far enough to describe the most remarkable match I've ever been involved in since joining the Hospital team in 2013. On a pitch that met with varying descriptions that included...agricultural, bloody awful and dangerous, both sides acknowledged that winning the toss was likely to have a major effect on the outcome of the match. You can only imagine our trepidation when our skipper Bruce came a credible second in that little contest, and the MP boys pitched us into bat first. Batting first on that wicket was scary enough, even without the slight matter of facing the in-form bowler of the moment in the shape of Nathan Columbus. In the initial stages those fears appeared all too justified as within 5 overs we were 14/3 all three wickets taken clean bowled by guess who? The next five or six overs saw the run rate remain quite modest and saw the loss of 2 more wickets and leaving us on a perilous 29/5. From then on our fortunes improved significantly. Tim Suddaby - the only one of our opening six batters to reach double figures got in the groove and eventually made 56, supported well by Rahul Mukherjee in the tail with a very impressive 31no giving us a fairly competitive (as it turned out) 152/9 off our 40. Star man for MP was of course Nathan Columbus with stunning figures of O8, M5, R7, W6.

  MP started their innings steadily with good knocks from Mario Williams and Stewart Rooney taking them to 70/5 at the halfway mark and looking comfortable. After that momentum swung our way with Rahul Mukherjee, Bruce and Tim taking wickets regularly supported by some excellent catches - most notably by Tony Danenberg in the slips that saw MP struggling at 119/9 in the 34th. But that man Nathan Columbus came back to haunt us and we we struggled to get that elusive final wicket. So the match went to a tantalising final over with Nathan looking comfortable on 23 and MP needing 3 to win. We had our very own Nathan to step up to the mark, Nathan Crowe to face a pressure first and final over that had almost as many twists as the whole match. Two dot balls gave us great hope then MP's Nathan hit back on the third ball with a well struck two leaving the score tied. Another dot kept everyone nerves jangling then the penultimate ball was edged into keeper Rex Venning's gloves to leave MP 152 all out and a remarkable match was tied.

  I don't know about anyone else but i was mentally and physically exhausted at the end. In the end it was the right result as neither team deserved to lose. For me this match typified all that is good about the game and the Pressies Grade, great cricket by both teams with great banter before during and after play.

Click here to view the CricHQ Scorecard

MP Presidents Gold vs ECS Gold @ Edgar Mac 1 (Loss)

  MPCC Gold hosted East Shirley Gold in the split comp on Edgar Mac 2... Actually due to an early Div.1 finish we weedled a change of venue onto a broken in Edgar Mac 1 pitch. Mayo won the toss and we had no hesitation to ask Gibby and his boys to have the first turn at bat. A couple of changes in the team rejigged our bowling attack with Pickle and Hume taking on the new ball duties against Gibb and Hemingway. The ebbs and flows as some fairly decent bowling was treated with respect (until the off line or missed length got the treatment in the form of a boundary), the first wicket of Hemingway (11) didn't fall until the ninth, Pickle trapping him in front. We gave Gibb a life when he was on 22, putting down a good chance at gully off Hume and you know you have to take anything coming your way off Gibbs bat if you don't want him to haunt you for the day. Tom Music was his typical belligerent self getting a few away early which brought to an end the opening bowling partnership at over sixteen, 57/1, Pickle 8/1/21/1 and Hume 8/0/34/0. This double change had Crimp and Millar taking the pill into drinks, Crimp teasing an edge and creating some good glove work from Price to remove Music for 24. Easts going into the break at 75/2. Iggo had joined Gibb and he wasn't taking a backwards step either. These two pushed along into the 32nd before the next breakthru could be made. Another double change at the bowling crease showed the part timers Flattery and Mayo attempt to turn the tide of Easts dominance. The breakthru mentioned came about when Dean played over the top of Mayo's mystery ball and having his castle disturbed for a hard hit 26. Flats, not to be outdone created his own bit of magic to remove new boy Robson (1) bowled and then a couple of overs later Clayton for 8, also bowled. Feeling like he was missing out Mayo snagged the wicket of O'Connor (1) when Skudz took his second catch in subsequent weeks, it may have been better if another had stuck sometime later but that was not to be. East's made a mad scramble for runs and picked up 30 in the last 3 with some well timed hitting to the open spaces and some cheeky singles. Grocott chaperoning Gibbs to yet another century against us, both remaining not out Tim 10* and Gibbs holding the bat for 102*. 199/6 a handy score in dampening conditions, but something we thought we'd have a good go at getting. Crimp breaking his drought 8/1/27/1, Flats 6/0/40/2 and Mayo 4/0/27/2.

  In a bit of a twist we sent out Steeman and Peters to blunt Easts attack of Grocott and Grey and, to be fair, they did a pretty good job, losing the first of the pair in the seventh over when Peters had enough of keeping the straight balls out wafted at one he probably shouldn't have and heard the death rattle when Grocott pushed one through him, 3 (18) and 15 on the board. Hume made his way in to join Jase who was the more attacking of the batsmen especially against the pacier Tim having knocked a couple down the ground for boundaries. However this partnership was short lived as Steeman found a tickle off Grey and walked after being caught by the keeper Iggo for 14 (35). SVG kept Hume company with some mad running to begin with, annoying the close in field before settling down with some more orthodox play. From the tenth over the pair saw off Tim and Tony, both bowling their allotment of eight on the trott, Groc's 8/0/31/1 and Grey a very respectable 8/1/17/1, and found our way to drinks seeing Graham and Clayton out with a slight edge to MP at 77/2. After the break the rate of scoring picked up as the boundary was found more frequently especially from the bat of Hume who made his way to 62 before trying to take on Jimmy early down the ground and not getting the timing required to avoid Joe fielding at mid off. Fall of wicket may have been 116 after some forensic work on the book but no guarantees this time round. Muzz, after his great work last week, had another go in the number 5 position unfortunately got an unplayable ball first up that had the appeal for LBW, which would have been given, superseded by the fact the ball had bounced around and knocked off the bails anyway... Flattery made his way to the crease but didn't produce the fluent play we know him for, squirting an early boundary but then unable to hit anything else off the block. His vigil was brought to a halt when Robson appeared at the bowling crease and with his gentle off spin defeated Flats defences and plowed into the stumps, 126/5. Mayo entered the fray fresh from heroics of the week before, but different circumstances demanded an attitude change which didn't sit well with him. Frustrated with a string of dot balls and with Pickle pulling up lame, Mayo's default setting asserted itself at the wrong time, attempted to boof Robson out of the park and making a bit of a meal of it being caught by Clayton for 1. A switch of runners had Millar, Mayo and Van Grunsven moving rolls and the emphasis put on running which may have caused another set of issues to be addressed probably early to mid next week. Millar and SVG put on 36 before Robson struck again, bowling Millar for 11 (17), then backing up with the wicket of Skudder two balls later, again bowled. With the run rate still in hand the problem of wicket retention came to the fore, Robson nabbing his fifth with a full bunger that should have been hit by Crimp to any part of the ground ended up in Gibbs hands to see the back of him for 5 (4) and the score tettering at 181/9, most of three overs left. Unfortunately for us a mix up in the running trying to get SVG on strike resulted in Price being run out and the chase came crashing down in a pile 18 runs short of Easts target, Pickle left stranded on 61* (52). O'Connor 6/0/24/2 and the standout bowling of Robson 5.4/0/26/5 making a mess of our middle, lower and tail order.

  After match drinks were transferred to the changing rooms where they went on for a good amount of time, at least until the booze ran out, from which point the clubrooms had to tolerate our presence. Thanks to some of the Easts players that stuck around with special mention to Duncan, who lasted until speeches and gave a little counter to Mayo's usual dribble...

Click here to view the CricHQ Scorecard

Cheers, Pickle.

Sporting Edge MPCC Draw for Saturday 6th March:

• MP Sporting Edge Div.1 1st XI vs MP Sporting Edge Div.1 2nd XI @ Edgar Mac 1 (2-Day)(Day 1)
• MP Div.4 vs Richmond @ St Albans 2
• MP Div.7 Panthers vs Riccarton Lions @ Barrington 1
• MP Div.7 Gold vs Prebbleton @ Prebbleton 1
• MP Beverage Brothers Presidents vs MP Gold Presidents @ Edgar Mac 2
• MP Cavaliers T20 vs Marist-Harewood @ Bishopdale 1

Mens Subs for Season 2020/21 … 

Men’s full subs to be $260 for a season if fully paid by 30 November, 2020 or if an AP has been established in writing with the Treasurer by 30 November, 2020. Otherwise the subscription to be increased to $300 for late payment. ($130 for students and team captains, or $170 for late payment).

• MPCC 5-Year Adult Membership … $1100 (To be paid immediately and in full).
• MPCC 10-Year Adult Membership … $2000 (To be paid immediately and in full).

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

Article added: Wednesday 03 March 2021