And just like that the 2020/21 Season is all but finished. This Saturday, 27th March is the final playing day for all but the MP Beverage Brothers Presidents side who unfortunately drew the bye this week. It would be great to see as many players and their supporters back at Edgar Mac on Saturday after their games for the last team speeches of the season and to share in a refreshment or two.

  Congratulations to Jacob Wilson who picked up 6 wickets Saturday for the MP Sporting Edge Div.1 1st XI in a low scoring 1st day against East Chch Shirley at Burwood 2. Jake took 4/47 in the 1st innings to help bowl Easts out for 131 (MP replied with just 102) and then took 2/18 in Easts 2nd innings as they finished the day 50/4. Jake's last wicket of the day was his 50th of the season and saw him achieve that milestone for the first time in his MPCC career. He joins Sam Gillespie (62) & Nathan Columbus (59) which is the first time since 1994/95 that three MPCC bowlers have passed 50 wickets in the same season.

  Congratulations to Glen Bellam whose first wicket in his spell of 3/27 for the MP Div.4 side Saturday against Marist-Harewood at Bishopdale Park was his 500th MPCC career wicket. Bellsy is the 11th bowler to achieve this milestone for the club and having passed 5000 runs back in November becomes just the third MPCC player after Shane Flattery & Steve Van Grunsven to achieve the fantastic club double of 5000 runs & 500 wickets! He is having a very productive 2020/21 season having scored 549 runs and taken 46 wickets heading into the last day this week. Bellsy has now scored 5383 runs and taken 502 wickets in his MPCC career to date.

  Congratulations to Akshay Reddy (501) whose innings of 10 for the MP Div.4 side against Marist-Harewood at Bishopdale Park saw him pass 500 runs for the season (Div.1 - 69 & Div.4 - 432). Ash is the 12th MPCC batsmen to pass the milestone this season which equals the record that has been achieved twice before in 1991/92 and 2014/15. This is the third time in Ash's career to date that he has passed 500 having scored 793 runs in his debut season of 2012/13 and 533 in 2014/15 and he now has 3441 career runs for the club to date.

  Congratulations to Ryan Hawkins whose 1st innings wicket against East Chch Shirley for the MP Sporting Edge Div.1 1st XI side on Saturday was his 100th Division 1 (Senior B) wicket for MPCC. He currently has 101 having picked up another in Easts 2nd innings and will be hunting more on Day 2 next week. Ryno has taken 42 wickets this season to date and now has 206 MPCC career wickets which also includes 102 Championship (Senior A) wickets for the club which he'll hopefully be adding to next season.

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.

Owls vs Hawks Match Report ...

  After the cancellation of the 2020 Owls vs Hawks the 2021 edition was highly anticipated. Owls won the toss and elected to have a bat first and were in instant trouble with James Duncan and Tom Laurent taking 3 wickets between them. With no 8 year old to pump around this year Ben Gill didn’t hang around long. Lower grade bully Wilcock got together with Dean August and put on a decent partnership with some quite delicious flair shots from Wilcock. The apparently injured Harsha “The Frankfurter” Reddy quickly dealt with Wilcock with one of his random seeds. Columbus and Wade Millar both came in and hit quick 30s including a 6 where the fielder that was positioned there decided to update the scoreboard at the time. Pickle and Dakesy at 10 and 11 both hit mid 20s scores not out to see the Owls through to 228 off their 30.

  Into the chase and the Hawks came out hitting early with Gillespie hitting a rapid 17 followed by a Chapman masterclass. Hemanshu Savsaviya more commonly known as "Muscles" came out and showed why he is in the running for the bombs of the year award dispatching Wilcock for a couple of well hit 6's. Obviously tired from his huge spell the day before Comet struggled early to get the ball off the block but eventually managed to get his way to the retirement score of 30 off about 50 balls. Laurent looked class hitting a quick 30 ret who batted throughout the middle overs with Collins. Collins had a beautiful picket fence until he was intimidated by a bigger rig to be out in the 20s. With 40 needed off the last 8 it was a comfortable cruise home with Dyer and Bradbury seeing the team home with 4 overs remaining. Hawks now trail the Owls by 1 in the overall wins which keeps the rivalry well and truly alive.

  Big thank you to Juls for running the bar all day, to Patto for running the BBQ and Ray and Chris for coming down to support even though they had an obvious bias towards the Owls!

Jono

Match Reports from Saturday 20th March ...

MP Sporting Edge Div.1 1st XI vs East Chch Shirley @ Burwood 2 (2-Day)(Day 1)

  Last game of the season, everything on the line…. Pretty simple, win or draw and get promoted. Good tense way to finish off the season at Burwood number 2. Lingy won the toss and decided to have a bowl, big factor behind that is so we can try and control the game late on day 2 if we needed to bat for a draw.

  Jacob and Ryan started us up, we nearly got off to a great start but the ball was dropped in the slips first ball of the game… we got off to a good start anyway with Ryan (1/29) getting the first wicket. Jacob (4/47) decided to take advantage of not playing on a spinners track and got 4 wickets pretty quickly after that. Cam (1/14) did an awesome job at the other end bowling tight lines unlucky only to get the 1 wicket though. They were 6/74 so we were happy with that but just needed to shut them down, which I think we did pretty good, they slowed down quite considerably from there. Sam (2/7) and Deeley (2/18) showed up to bowl and Sam showed us why he is leading the club for wickets this season bowling Ryan Entwistle who looked keen to just shut up shop. The big wicket came from Deeley who snuck through Dixon who was on 47, with an arm ball…. all out for 130 we were happy with that, good effort from the bowlers, our fielding on the other hand needs to find a new gear.

  Lingy and Thorpey opened up for us and Lingy got away to a good start as he has done so many times this season, but unfortunately dragged one onto the stumps for 17, Thorpey was seeing off the new ball... Aaron came out and was looking really good but unfortunately good a short wide one and only got it as far as first slip, Thorpey was also batting…. From there we needed to show some grit to get us through but we didn’t do that.. all credit to Thorpey he stuck around and did something that needed to get done, unfortunately getting caught behind for 1 off 77 balls. Not too much to say really but we were all out for 102.

  Came back on to bowl with 16 overs left in the day and got ourselves a good start. Jacob and Ryan again starting up, Jacob got 2 early wickets and Ryan was all over Brad Entwistle, eventually getting him out, Sammy got the other wicket of Sheahan who came out to smack it around. They were 58/4 at the end of the day, pretty happy with that as well.

  There are quite a few equations for next week for us to get promoted but obviously our goal is to win and go through the 2-Dayers undefeated! Massive week for us and what a way to finish the year if we can get ourselves through and back up to Championship!

Cheers Jacob.

MP Sporting Edge Div.1 2nd XI vs Sydenham @ Sydenham 2 (2-Day)(Day 1)

  Final match of the 2 day comp against the other team with no wins, Sydenham. Sydenham won the toss and elected to have a bowl. Opening up was the usual pair of Bradbury and Dakesy, after claiming he didn’t need to train during the week because he was in form Bradbury decided to snick off early for a duck. Possibly the most boring combination of batters in the club Collins and Dacombe went about their usual ways, hitting around a run an over which continued for the first 20 overs. After drinks the pair upped the run rate getting to 56 before Dakesy was run out for a hard worked 19(92). Captain Duncan came in and really struggled early as we limped into lunch 66-2 after 37. After lunch the pitch seemed completely different as both batters started playing their shots scoring at close to a run a ball over the next 15 overs. Comet brought up his 50 with a couple of big 6s before missing a straight one to be out for 53(66). Sloane was promoted up to 5 but seemed very confused trying to play a cut shot to a ball that made his leg stump do cartwheels, Basaboena on return decided cow was the place to go first ball and was caught at midwicket. Jayden (2) and Josh (2) didn’t stick around long both bowled. At the start of the 2 day comp Comet decided to offer a crate to anyone who could bat 50 overs and today Collins decided to stick around and completed the challenge only to fall the next over for 51(125). Brayden in at 9 looked very promising with the bat with a couple of lusty blows late in the innings and joined by the fastest hands in the west got a crucial late partnership including a decent bomb by McBride hitting the bowler’s car. Monger came in at 11 chest pumped out after his 9 the pervious week but that was short lived as he was out for 1 in the final over to see us all out for 176.

  Feeling this was a decent score on this pitch we started off very well with McBride picking up 2 early wickets. Nemo at the other end was quite unlucky that Sloane was more focused on his dive than taking the catch with a couple going through first slip. Collins (0-15 off 3) was brought on for Nemo and decided to spray it all over the place and was dealt with accordingly although was unlucky not to pick up a wicket with the fielder not picking up the ball. Dave (0-29 off 3) replaced McBride and also bowled a few overs of rubbish. Basa was brought back and bowled excellently, picking up a couple of quick wickets with Jayden (1-45) picking up 1 after offering a couple of chances earlier in his spell. McBride was brought back on and got instant success picking up 3 quick wickets to get season best figures of 5-28 off 10. With 1 over left in the day and none of the other bowlers looking likely to get a wicket Comet took off his pads and decided to have a bowl giving Collins the gloves. James started with a sharp outswinger beating the outside edge putting some doubt into the batters mind, this was followed up by a couple of good length deliveries uncomfortably kept out by the batter. Having spent many years working on his variations including his knuckle ball Comet decided to roll the dice and with the batter expecting a big outswinger was hit on the back pad hitting nothing but middle stump for his first Division 1 wicket. With 2 balls remaining in the day the number 11 tried to hide and after being forced to pad up again and come out to face the music was instantly tested with the knuckle ball. Final ball of the day was a near unplayable off cutter that moved far to much for a Div.1 batter to have any chance of hitting but unfortunately was missing leg stump, so Comet finished his over 1-1 and Sydenham walked off 199-9 with a lead of 23 which should lead to an interesting final day as neither team wants to be the wooden spoon. 

Jono

MP Division 4 vs Marist-Harewood @ Bishopdale 1 (Loss)

Click here to view the CricHQ Scorecard

MP Division 7 Panthers vs Heathcote Afghan XI (Win by Default)

MP Division 7 Gold vs Prebbleton @ Prebbleton 1 (Win)

  The Div 7 Gold team met the Heathcote Tussocks at the peaceful Barnett Park. We had Sam B back as captain, lucky us, and he immediately proved his worth by losing the toss, and getting us put in the field, with a green, soft looking pitch but rock hard outfield. As per the norm, we opened up with Max and Dave. It took some time for things to get going - we weren't getting wickets, but they weren't getting any runs, so it was rather painful there for a while. Max finally made the breakthrough, bowling their captain - 4/1. There was then another long period of both minimal runs and wickets, before a bowling change brought Sam B into the attack, and (finally) another wicket - 28/2. Sam got another one just before drinks, and Heathcote went into those drinks 43/3. A little frustrating, only taking 3 wickets, but the run rate was pretty d.o.a, so a good first session overall. After drinks saw Phil and Malcolm come into the attack, at which point Heathcote's innings came apart at the seams. Phil bowled their set batsman (54/4), then the searing pace of Malcolm proved too much. With 3 wickets in 4 balls, Heathcote was reduced to 54/7, then 1 run later Phil got his second - 55/8. Heathcote dug in a bit at that point, before Max finally broke through, 88/9. And, ensuring that he would once again play a starring role in his critically acclaimed YouTube channel (link at the bottom of this report), Max also finished off the innings with a fine, direct hit, runout. So Heathcote all out for 88 after 36 overs. Malcolm was in fine form with 3/20 from his 6, with Max unplayable with 2/7 from 7. Sam B was equally handy with 2/6 from 7, and Phil bowled well with 2/21 from 6. Dave didn't have any luck with 0/9 from 5, Sam G turned in 0/11 from 4, and Will was 0/12 from his 1 over.

  With a low target, fast outfield, and a demon-less pitch, we were confident we could comfortably take out the match. We did make it a little harder than it should have been for ourselves though. Opening up with myself and Devender, the runs didn't flow, but the bowling wasn't exactly lethal either. So I was especially downcast to hit a leg side full toss straight to a fielder who apparently hadn't caught a cold all season ... util then - caught for 7. Devender ran himself out not long after for 3, bringing Hemanshu to the crease. He played his usual innings, including 2 maximums, before being bowled for 25. Sam G was caught for a golden blob, which left it up to Thomas and Max to bring it home for us, which they duly obliged in the 16th over, leaving Thomas 12* and Max 24*. So a comfortable win by 6 wickets in the end.

  While the Tussocks haven't had a great season, with only 3 wins, it's always a very enjoyable game against them - they are a good bunch of guys. So we head into the last game of the season against The Wanderers with a lot of confidence.

https://www.youtube.com/c/MasoodChakari/videos

Click here to view the CricHQ Scorecard

Cheers, Richard.

MP Cavaliers T20 vs Marist-Harewood @ Bishopdale 1 (Win)

Click here to view the CricHQ Scorecard

MP Beverage Brothers Presidents vs Lancaster Park @ Edgar Mac 2 (Loss)

Report supplied by Lancaster Park ...

  Lancaster Park were hosted by Merivale Papanui Beverage Brothers on their home ground - and what feels like our second home ground - Edgar Macintosh Park. The number 2 pitch had an interesting look, very brown but well grassed. Upon calling correctly I used the time-tested logic of "bat first - if you do well you might set up a win, if you do badly at least you finish early". It proved a stroke of genius as Ben McBride and Leighton Evans raced out of the blocks to take us to 49/0 after 7 overs. Fish managed to quiet things down by bringing himself on at one end while Ross Hastings wheeled down his right arm slows at the other. We were still very happy to go through to drinks at 103/2 though, following a 77 run opening partnership. This first quarter was definitely the best for batting as the pitch started to play some tricks from there in, keeping low at one end and rearing up at the other. After going at 5 an over for the first twenty we could only manage 4 an over for the second, with testing bowling from Nathan Columbus (nearly broke my rib) and Amy Rendel (bowled me out) in particular. The final total was 184, all out on the second to last ball. Carter Genet finished 15*, I believe his highest score in Presidents and Chris Bostock hit Kris Rowe for 2 fours in the last over - a particularly good effort by him.

  Mario Williams and Grant Moore opened for MP and Moore fell to a nicely done catch by Carter Genet in the second over. Marc van Tongeren came in and hit 3 fours, but was out soon after, followed by Ross Hastings and Kim Minogue. At 59/3 it was a good position for us to be in, better first ball after the break with Stewart Rooney being dismissed. This brought Kris Rowe, who likes batting against us, to the crease to join Mario. The two set about the task of scoring 6 an over and put on 47 before a mix up saw Mario run out. Amy Rendel came in next and added another 38 with Kris - things were getting interesting. In came Fish next and even though the wickets were running out the runs were too. Wayne managed to catch Rowe in front in his last over and 39 were required from the final 5 overs but with just 2 wickets in hand. Tim Corry and Stace Styles were the bowlers entrusted with the death and it got down to (I think) 12 required off the last. Nathan Columbus was in by then - we had seen him bowl much too often, but had never seen him bat! For the second week in a row the field spread far and wide to keep the ball away from the boundary and we managed to get home by 6 runs, despite a great effort from the MP lower-middle order to score quickly on a difficult surface. Tim Corry came away with 8-1-32-4, his best figures of the season and Rob Genet snared 4 catches at 'keeper.

  An interesting quirk of the game was that out of the 19 wickets to fall, 9 were on the first ball of the over. Once again it was a nice, close, enjoyable game of cricket. Thanks to the MP Beverage Siblings for having us!

Click here to view the CricHQ Scorecard

Richard Derham

MP Gold Presidents vs Sydenham Hospital @ Edgar Mac 1 (Win)

  Hospital were hosted by MPCC Gold on the number one at Edgar Mac this week. Richie lost another toss and the expected call of we'll have a bat first boys didn't eventuate. The batting of last few weeks influenced the decision for Bruce, so first use of the pitch to post a total was ours. Dearsley shared the opening duties with Steeman and he took the opportunity with both hands. The usual early wicket came about in the fourth thanks to an unreal catch by Barkhuizen at slip chucking a hand up and the rising ball stuck, removing Steeman for 5 with the score at 24. This had Hume join PD in the middle, Mukherjee and Barkhuizen trying to throw down missiles to reduce the line up fast. A couple of difficult chances created but none taken as the batsmen got into their work, saw off the openers and the second change bowlers. An inspired choice of Day effected the breakthru they desperately required a couple of overs from drinks snapping up Dearsley leg before for a devastating 70 off 56, punctuated by 11 boundaries and a couple of well deserved threes. Pickle and Hume meandered to the break without fireworks as we posted 106/2 after twenty. Afterwards we just ticked it over for five, getting to 131, Hospital having brought back Rahul to force pace, got his man (Pickle) in his last, apparently a superman effort from Rex behind the stumps, diving to seventh slip and pouching a one finger screamer to have him on his way for 14... Possibly not as that was described but a great effort none the less. Browne had a cautious start getting his eye in. With Rahul out of the attack, Pieter got another crack at the pill and immediately removed Hume top edging to Bunz at point for a sedate (for him) but well made 48 (75). The batting line up threw up another well known name (at least for MPCC), Flats to combine in partnership with Browne and between them put on another big effort of almost 70 before double action for Hospital, Crowe picking up Shane B on the boundary (very well judged catch) for 33 off Bunz, then Shane FD (struggling on one leg) sacrificed himself taking on Kellums arm and being run out by a large margin for 30. This occurred in the last over which left very little time for Campbell (6*) and Mayo (2*) to make a mark. As it was 222/6 after 40 could be considered possibly 10 short of what we were looking at earlier on, but a score we were quite happy to take. Wickets shared around with most bowlers taking some tap.

  Into the field Mayo brainstorming opted to open with himself and Millar in an effort to contain the Hospital openers McKinlay and Crowe. Not a bad start from our boys doing the job asked for, and getting the bonus of a wicket apiece as frustration prompted Sydenham to try to go over the top. Peters pulling off a catch we thought he had no right to take, Browne overcalling the same man probably four or five times in his effort to clear room for himself to effect a catch of his own. These two efforts were highlights in a generally poor performance in the field as we dropped probably six or seven regulation chances (including a sickening crunch of ball intercepting a head at one point). With both openers gone we were contending with Suddaby and Day, both of whom knuckled down and took the chances provided, putting on close to 80 to emulate our own early partnership, including getting to the half way point of the innings 90/2 getting through spells from Hume and Dearsley and a single over from Pickle. We brought on Browne to get some vigour into the attack and he provided the breakthru having Day late cutting to Steeman at slip, chance accepted this time for 32. This brought Bunz to the crease who consistantly rotated the strike. A period of tussle ensued only broken when Browne slipped a ball past Suddabys bat to strike the pad and he was adjudged being in line for a great 45. Things didn't really get easier as big Piet strode to the middle with a view to dominate, first three balls producing 10 well struck runs and taking the gloss off the wicket that fell in the over. Another few overs of too and fro before a double strike from Pickle had Bunz caught at mid-off for 12 and Crawford trundling back first ball, bowled top of off. Browne got the blowback in his next over as Pieter reaked his revenge to give Hospital a sniff. The hattrick ball wasn't good enough from SVG and Kellum hit a good boundary then followed it up with a double, but then got greedy and had another waft down the ground, not connecting well enough to clear Wade at deepish mid-on, giving Pickle three scalps on his last ball of the spell. The mojo was at the Condell Ave end Campbell brought on as cover also got into a position of a hattrick knocking over both Barkhuizen (28) then Mukherjee with identical balls, leaving Aiden to face up to avoid the "hatty". If the first attempt trick ball wasn't good enough, this one was pure rubbish, nowhere within range. Thankfully Dearsley was on hand to hit some stumps as another piss poor attempt at a catch was shelled and gave Rex a life, but Hegarty paid the price on the next ball. Sydenham ending up on 164 in a game that could have gone so many ways. They accepted the hospitality offered by the club on this occasion, alot of them out lasting our lads at the after game drinks and speeches. Thanks for the season guys, I hear your recruiting drive will be in full flourish during the mandatory break time, so we'll see you next time bigger and better than ever.

Click here to view the CricHQ Scorecard

Cheers, Pickle.

Sporting Edge MPCC Draw for Saturday 27th March:

• MP Sporting Edge Div.1 1st XI vs East Chch Shirley @ Burwood 2 (2-Day)(Day 2)
• MP Sporting Edge Div.1 2nd XI vs Sydenham @ Sydenham 2 (2-Day)(Day 2)
• MP Div.4 vs Marist-Harewood @ Edgar Mac 1
• MP Div.7 Panthers vs Riccarton Lions @ Barrington 2 
• MP Div.7 Gold vs The Wanderers @ Edgar Mac 2
• MP Beverage Brothers Presidents (BYE)
• MP Gold Presidents vs Sumner @ Barnett 2
• MP Cavaliers T20 vs Marist-Harewood @ Redwood 2

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: Friday 12 March 2021