Plenty of reading this edition after a busy week of cricket which saw the Championship and Division 1 sides playing on Thursday evening, all grades playing Saturday and finally the Chairman's Cup game on Sunday.

Micheal and his Chairman's Cup side did MPCC proud and it was great to see players from across the grades get together and play so well as a unit. Unfourtunatly last years other finalist St Albans come out on top this time around and we wish them all the best for the remainder of the games. 

REMINDER - There are team speeches, player of the day beers and our team draw every week after the games are complete, Usually around 7pm so please make an effort to support your club by putting money over the bar and support Julz in the kitchen with her awesome hotdogs, bacon buttie's and toastie's! Great chance to catch up with your MPCC family about your games! All players, team oppositions and supporters welcomed. 

Congratulations - Srinath Basaboena on scoring 2000 MPCC club runs. Basa scored 53 runs on Saturday between his 2 x T20 games for Division 1 including 51 in his second game and in doing so has now scored his 2000th run. Basa is a club favorite and his chat and energy on the field is on a level well above anyone else!

Congratulations - Petros Kapralos who on Saturday 3rd December took his maiden MPCC 5 wicket bag with figures off 5/17 for his Bombay Tandoor Presidents side in a good win against a strong Burnside Robbie's Presidents team. Petros also won the weekly Presidents grade award and will be shouted a day to the cricket at Hagley Oval.

Congratulations - Luke Spanjer who took 6/30 on Saturday 3rd December while playing for our Geeks on Wheels Division 7 side. Luke Plays for North West Youth and in only his second game for Merivale-Papanui took these awesome figures.

Match Reports from Thursday 1st December ..

MP Sporting Edge Championship vs Lancaster Park @ St Albans Park 2 (T20)

On Thursday we took on Lancaster Park at St Albans 2 and after losing the toss we were asked to bowl first and opened up with myself and Jacob. I got one early on but the park batsmen seemed to get away in the power play leaving them on about 50-1 after 6. Bertie and ben then came on with Bert bowling nicely until his last over, picking up 2 for himself. Sam G also bowled nicely but without reward or luck, which meant we needed a wicket, so Jacob was brought back into the attack and claimed 2 wickets for not very many in his second spell. This left Lancaster Park on 110-6, however in the last few overs they seemed to get away and finished on 152-7 with Ben getting a wicket in the final over.

The less said about the batting the better, losing wickets at regular intervals without the score progressing. This saw us at 27-7 where Lewis hit a couple of boundaries in a spirited attempt to try and push the score on before he departed for 18. This saw us collapse to 64 all out which was a very poor effort as we know we are a talented group of players and should be applying ourselves better in pressure situations. Onto Saturday where we face St Albans and Sumner at Edgar Mac, we know we need to pick up some valuable points, so best not to dwell on a disappointing defeat and keep focused and hungry for the points.

Cheers Samuel Medhurst

MP Sporting Edge Division 1 vs Marist-Harewood @ Edgar Mac 1 (T20)

Thursday 1st December the cowboys took to Edgar Mac to face the Marist Harewood side and after a comprehensive win at the toss selected to bat in the daylight. The power play saw both of the openers decided to run themselves out and Comet deciding to check Hardeeps reflexes off his own bowling we needed something to get back on track. The middle order of Bevan (12) Gilly (19) Tim on debut (13) and Sloane (14 including two bombs) gave us a bit of a platform unfortunately nobody kicked on to have the match winning knock. As the light faded fast we knew quick wickets were going to be key if we were to defend our slightly below par 104 and when McBride found Hardeeps edge first ball spirits rose only for comet to put it down in the gully. Luckily for Mike he bowled an unplayable delivery around the legs of "Prince" and snapped his leg pole in half. After a good opening spell from McBride (4-0-18-2) and Mike (4-1-15-2) we struggled to get much traction into the middle and lower order bowling too many wides (17) and with the light fading and one of there batters reduced to one leg they managed to chase the score down with 3 wickets and 3 overs in hand. Not the desired result but the boys put in the hard yards and will hopefully be able to knock Marist over in the one day games. Chur the boys

Cheers Chris McBride

Match Reports from Saturday 3rd December ..

MP Sporting Edge Championship vs St Albans and Sumner @ Edgar Mac 1 (T20)

This week the championship side were lucky enough to have 2 T20 games at Edgar Mac with the first being against St Albans. We opted to bowl first and got underway with a wicket in the third over making them 1/11 but a decent partnership for Saint Albans saw them get to 54 runs until Bert Medhurst got the breakthrough of their opening bat. From that point on wickets fell at regular intervals and through good bowling and a decent fielding display we managed to restrict Saint Albans to 115/9 of their 20 overs. Wickets were shared around with Sammy G, Ben, Bert and Sam Medhurst all taking 2 each and Jacob being the most economical with 0/16 of his 4 overs. Onto the batting innings with 116 runs needed to win, after Lingy fell for 4 runs early things went downhill quickly and we lost wickets regularly eventually ending up all out for 74. With only 3 players reaching double digits, Lewis (10) , Teddy (16) and Sam Gillespie (10) it was a batting innings to forget.

After a disappointing loss the champs side looked to have an instant improvement against next opponents Sumner. Once again we bowled first, Sumner got off to a decent start and then Ben claimed the first wicket and then Bert got one soon after making sumner 49/2. A decent partnership for summer saw them get away from us a bit until Sammy G got the breakthrough which left summer in a decent spot at 110/3 with a few overs in hand. From that point on the Merivale side bowled extremely well restricting the summer side to just 123/8 of their 20 overs. This included a team hattrick when the Medhurst brothers combined for 2 runouts and then Sam Medhurst forcing the batsmen to sky one up to Luke Piper at short third who after a juggle or two held onto the catch. Once again wickets were shared around with Sam Medhurst claiming 2 and Jacob, Ben, Bert and Sam Gillespie all taking 1 each. With 124 the total needed to claim 5 important points we looked to show a massive improvement from our batting innings earlier in the day and that we did as we had one of our best power plays being 36/1 after 6 overs with Lewis (15) being the only to fall. Teddy (22) batted well once again but after he and Luke fell in quick succession we were in a bit of a spot of bother but that’s when Rory Hawes comes to the crease and steadies the ship as he has done many a time this year. After hitting a big bomb Rory got out of for an important 25 which Brought Aaron Chapman to the crease. The game became closer and closer and after bringing the run rate down over by over Hitting very important runs Lingy fell for 43 runs off 48 balls almost batting through the whole innings. A big promotion saw Sam Medhurst make his way to the Crease needing 6 runs to win and after him and Az knocked the ball around it came down to Sammy needed to hit 1 run to win with 3 balls to do it. After a swing and a miss at the first one nerves started rising around the ground but Sammy (2*) calmly cut the next ball to point and him and Aaron (12*) safely made it through giving the championship side a 5 wicket win with 1 ball in hand.

Cheers Ben MacLennan

MP Sporting Edge Div.1 vs East Shirley @ Burwood 1 and Riccarton @ St Albans Park 1 (T20)

For our morning game we travelled to Burwood 1 to play East Shirley. Upon winning the toss and electing to bowl we soon had them two down for not many thanks to a couple of sharp catches by Chris and Mintu. Both Chris and Mike bowling good opening spells before Easts were able to string a couple of partnerships together in the middle overs. The pitch played slow but Easts were able to run well and take advantage of a few dropped catches to push for a good score. Fortunately Josiah continued his wicket taking form picking up 3 wickets along with some tight bowling by Jase to hold them to a competitive score of 127 for 8. Ash and Joel opened up our run chase and put on 22 runs before Ash was caught at fine leg. Spinners continue to stall our run rate through the power play overs but Joel was able to attack the seam bowling and hit a few sixes and fours before being caught behind for 26. After that it was a pretty sorry precession of regular wickets falling for not many runs with no other batsman reaching double figures aside from Mintu who manipulated the field for a tidy 10 runs before being the last man to fall in a sorry batting display of 71 all out.

After quickly eating a few luke warm pies and rice balls we travelled to the field of despair also known as St Albans park for our 2nd match against Riccarton. Those who are unfamiliar with St Albans park should know it is famous for its scenic glory holes and being a cursed venue for visiting MPCC teams. Despite the recent run of losses the team was in quite high spirits as we batted first. The hulking forms of Joel and Hemanshu opened the batting to commiserate the 5th Anniversary of Harambes death. Joel hit a six 2nd ball but was again tied up by spin before being caught for 11 followed soon after by Hemanshu and Comet. Ash coming in at 4 looked fluent for a while and showed signs of returning to form before being runout yet again. Sloane stuck around a while before he was bowled which lead to our best partnership of the T20 Campaign. Basa and Mike rotated the strike freely for a while until Basa blew his calf out and was to resort to stand and deliver tactics. It ended up being a turning point for Basa as he peppered the leg side boundaries with a succession of 4s and 6s and finally cracking his first div 1 half century. This also took him past 2000 runs for MPCC. Basas awesome knock carried us to our best score of campaign 133 for 8. With runs on the board the boys were fizzing to grab our first win and the skipper Chris got us off to a good start with two wickets before some loose bowling got dispatched for boundaries. We were robbed a chance to make further inroads into Riccarton’s batting line up when a blatantly obvious glove to the keeper was turned down. Given this player was a former teammate were understandably furious and tempers perhaps got away for a few people. Sadly this player went on to score 35 valuable runs before being out LBW and given one of the all time great send offs. Unfortunately the injuries in the field began to take tole and we couldn’t stem the flow of runs as Riccarton cruised to the total with a few overs to spare. Hopefully the lads can turn things around on Thursday night.

Cheers Joel Singer

MP BBS Timbers Division 3 vs Marist-Harewood Sunrisers @ Bishopdale Park 

The Timbers travelled to Bishopdale Park to take on Marist Harewood Sunrises. The Sunrises won the toss and chose to bat due to only having 7 players at 12.50pm. We were pretty buoyed after coming off a good win last week and we knew we could give the Sunrises a run for their money.

Nilang Deshmukh hit the first ball for two runs and immediately struggled to run. He played Div 1 and got injured so it was evident that he might tee off from the start. Kris Rowe and our skipper Matt Wilcock opened the bowling and bowled very good lengths against a combination keen on getting after them. Our captain (known at Private player on PlayHQ) decided it was too hot after 3.3 overs. He duly pulled up holding his back and a few overs later, he wisely decided to go and sit in the shade. Matt tried to point to who was to take over from the side-line, but I just assumed that duty. Sorry Ice, Ranjith and Bellsy. You guys were way worthier choices!!!

Back to our bowling effort! All the bowlers were fantastic at their craft. We managed to bowl out the Sunrises for 99. This was a top effort against a very good batting line up. Kris Rowe almost pulled off another feat as he was on a hat trick at one stage. Thanks to young master Wilcock who took the place of dad in the field. We think you were great Caleb.

Bowling -  Matt Wilcock       1 for 6 after 3.3 overs

                   Kris Rowe            4 for 30 after 8 Overs

                   Glen Bellam        3 for 7 after 3 overs

4 catches by Ranjith Rangarajan.

Into bat and chasing 100, we found the chase slightly difficult against tight bowling and a wicket that wasn’t easy to bat on. The rain we had early in the week slowed the paced late afternoon but our batsmen were very patient and we romped home in the 38^th over with 6 wickets down.

Masood Chakari - 23 not Out

Glen Bellam - 19

Timbers pulling off another great win. A few beers and some yarns with the Sunrises under the trees and then a rush to Edgar Mac to try and see the end of play on Edgar Mac 1 and 2.

Man of the match went to Ranjith for his 4 catches and runs at the top of the order, but I want to mention Bellsy for his match winning efforts.

Well done to the Champs lads for a great win against Sumner. Onwards and upwards. And more pleasingly, well done to my good mate Petros for your excellent winning spell against Burnside.

Cheers Mario Williams

MP Frame'n'Copy North/Canter Division 6 Panthers vs Southbrook @ Souhtbrook Domain 2

On a fine day and slow pitch Panthers lost the toss and were put to bat first. Playing at the Southbrook Domain out in Rangiora we lost 3 wickets under 10 runs in the first 5 overs of the innings. With only 9 players available for the day, it was not ideal place to be! 

There was some recovery job started off by Andy duo (Richards and Anderson) until Andy Richards fell off in the 12th over which took us to about 40 runs in 12 overs, he score 31 out of that. Andy Anderson was joined by ol mate Steve Gillespie and they ticked about for another few overs until Andy Anderson was caught by bowler himself at 21, at this time team score was 65 in 20 overs. After that team could not sustain or give hand to Steve on one end and we finished off at 68 in total.

Southbrook came into bat with a small total of only 69 runs , the opening batters were in mood to cruise this total in no time but Panthers had a determination to drag the game as long as possible by bowling right areas and keeping positive mindset. Opening stand was broken by good high catch by skipper on consistent Andy Anderson’s bowling. They were 21-1 in 4 overs when bowl was handed over to the GOAT Ronnie Khuu, he bowled a magical spell from one end of 7 overs 9 runs 2 maiden and 1 wicket to keep the game in balance and creating doubts in opposition’s mind. Andy Richards and Steve Gillespie gave a solid support to Ronnie by taking 2 wickets each. At one stage Southbrook was 65-5, with only 4 wickets to go (opposition only had 10 to bat at this time) we could smell victory. However, with 2 short in the outfield and low total to defend it was quite hard to keep the opposition under pressure all the time. Panthers lost the game in 22^nd over.

Can’t talk enough good things about this team to keep the spirit alive even when defending low totals like this. Good fight from lads and great spell from Ronnie Khuu made him MVP of the day.

Cheers Sunnie Gogia.

MP Geeks on Wheels North/Canter Division 7 vs The Fitz Wanderers @ Sreydon Domain 1

Could Geeks on Wheels continue their unbeaten run so far this season when they matched up with The Fitz Wanderers at Spreydon Domain?

We had the services again of Ethan & Luke Spanjer, as well as Barrel's mate Ash, for this round.

The pitch wasn't quite the bayou of last week's effort, but was still green and damp.

Seemed to be a good one to bowl on first, and Frosty did the deed, won the toss, and chose to do exactly that.

And it appeared right from the start that it was the right decision to make. Ritwik and Ethan opened up, and immediately had the Wanderers in trouble. Ritwik removed both openers in quick succession, and things were looking good @ 2/11.

Unfortunately things went a little downhill from that point. Their #3 could hold a bat, and could also unfortunately hit a ball, and we served up too many hittable deliveries. Ethan & Hary Singh got a bit of stick. Our fielding was also really not up to our normal standards as well, with a couple of chances going begging. A change of bowlers dialled back the run-rate a little before drinks though, with Frosty & Ash doing a great job of tightening things up.

They still went into drinks in a very strong position @ 88/2, though.

After drinks, however, it was a different story. Their #3 got tied down, and they began to lose wickets at regular intervals at the other end.

And the main destroyer was Luke, who ripped the heart out of their innings, including being on a hat trick at one point.

Their # 3 continued to score runs though, just not at the rate he was before drinks.

When he was the final wicket to fall, with Ash being rewarded for his efforts with a stumping, The Wanderers were all out for 160 in the 36th over. Which, considering where they were at drinks, was a great result.

Luke was the absolute standout, with (at the time of writing) the season's best bowling figures for the club so far, 6/29 off 8. Ritwik was also excellent with 2/18 from his 8, Sanath chipped in with 1/20 from 4, and Ash 1/29 from 5.5. Harry ended up with 0/13 from his 2, and Ethan 0/29 from 3.

So 161 to win - very gettable on a pitch that was drying out and a reasonably quick outfield.

But...we made a right meal of it, assisted by some very accurate bowling from the opposition.

Alan hit a boundary first ball then was bowled shortly after for 6, and I was bowled for a blob the next over.

Harry K was bowled for 4 (after a heated "discussion" where he was given not out 3 times in a row after what were admittedly very close LBW decisions - resulting in a change of umpires to keep the peace).

Harry Singh went for 1, and Ethan for 2.

Which left us in dire straights on 5/16. It took a fine partnership between Thomas and Ritwik to bring some respectability to the innings.

When Thomas was run out for 24, though, after getting us through to 69, we never really were in it. Ritwik was doing his best at the other end, but with Frosty out for 3, Luke for 3, and then Ritwik himself for a fine 39, it was all a bit much. Ash was run out for 2 (not surprising, what with him wearing crocs), and we were all out for 105 in the 34th over, leaving Sanath not out 0.

So a loss by 55 runs, and our first defeat of the season. A bit of a shame our batting didn't support what was in the end a pretty good bowling effort, especially by Luke, but all winning streaks have to end at some point. And what it does do is give us a chance to start another one!

cheers Richard Judkins

MP Bombay Tandoor Presidents vs Burnside Robbie's @ Edgar Mac 2

MPCC Bombay tandoor Presidents hosted the unbeaten Robbies Burnside at Edgar mac 2 passing showers Thurs and Fri had top order batsman from both sides looking nervous as to what lay ahead. Worse news lay ahead for M.P skipper as opening batter Andy had re injured hammy 11am sat gutsy and to his credit he still played but was severely hampered, 2ndly loss of toss and Mark had know hesitation in asking us to bat apart from a dashing four from Pickle early things things were hard going as we found ourselves in early trouble at 11 for 2 both Pickle 4 then Bell 4 adjudged LBW back to sideline Harrison Dave making early inroads stand In opener Mendis and Hume having a rebuilding partnership of 39 until Mendis was caught brilliantly by Rooney for excellent 21 at drinks we found ourselves 59 for 4 with first Hume 24 then Browne 6 departing after drinks things were not looking flash but Crimpy and a hobbling Zwies formed a good partnership of 32 getting us to 119 bowled out in 38th Crimp a nice 28 no Sherbs 3-32 Dyer 2-12 standout for burnside. Our turn to bowl with pitch still difficult to bat we still had runners chance a special thanks to burnside Skip Mark who helped us out with sub fielder great sportsmanship so Andy didn't do any more damage to hammy. Things started very similar for burnside with runs hard come by and early wickets with applied pressure from Pickle and Mendis and then Kokiri and Crimp at drinks Burnside 43 for 4 opener Summers still there and looking more confident as his innings developed after drinks Summers and Harrison (Dean) continued there partnership and at 63 for 4 after 25 the game in balance but the intro of Kapralos quickly swung the game back in our favour removing firstly Dean bowled and then the dangerous Summers for 36 caught bowled great catch two more quickly followed with Cini and Dyer not adding to total Burnside reeling 65 for 8 meanwhile Browne at other end bowling demanding lines and when he removed Tonks 77 for 9 victory seemed assured. Rooney and Sherbs had other ideas and formed nice 10th wicket stand which was just starting to get a bit annoying for us until Kapralos to his teams delight had Sherbs caught well by a smiling Bell at backward point. Petro a well deserved 5-17-6 and SVG 3-19-8 chief destroyers Burnside 93 all out a game played in good spirits throughout aftermatch yarn and a kingfisher with some familiar faces wishing robbies all best for rest season ahead.

Cheers Mark Hume

Match Report from Sunday 4th December (Chairman's Cup) .. 

Sunday cricket again – Allowing us an opportunity to defend out Chairman’s Cup title from last year, for those of you that don’t know the history – Chairman’s cup is a straight knockout comprising of a mixture of all of the playing grades at each club, with the theory being an opportunity for the lower grade and higher grade players to combine together and test themselves against other Christchurch clubs. This competition dates back a very long time, pre dating the Suburban & Metro cricket combining and was previously played between Senior A clubs. Fielding a strong team again this year we thought we were a good chance to defend that title, things started well with a beautiful day at Hagley Nursery, the pitch had a slight tinge of green on it but looked pretty flat, Merivale winning the toss and electing to bat first. Aaron Chapman and Michael Beattie opening the batting together with the intention of minimising the damage of their dangerous opening bowling pair with Scott Mason (New Zealand over 50’s rep) opening at one end and ex Merivale Papanui bowler Andrew Brown at the other. The damage was minimised at Scott’s end, but he tied things up going too only 17 runs off his 8 overs, but wicketless as was the plan. Michael got a roughly run a ball 22, while Aaron struggled a little at the start - facing most of Scott’s bowling, there were some scoring opportunities from the other end which we took. Aaron got a start and ended up 15 or so off 45 balls. In at 3 we had last minute ring in Sam Hall, who anchored our innings really well for a while, both him and Rory saw us through to drinks where we were about 115/2 looking to really kick on and get a score of 220+. Unfortunately Rory fell shortly after, hitting a few lusty blows on his way to a brisk 35, at this point the score around 125/3, still a very good platform for our powerful middle order, Princely (div 3) batted at 5 and batted really well, showing some good intent and good running with fellow afternoon grade player Mani (Div 6) at 6, but again both of then falling in that 15-25 run stage. Sloane at 7 was swinging for the hills, although they were never in any real danger. 172/6 became 172/9 when Andrew Brown tidied up most of the tail with a well bowled hat trick, his end figures were 4/43 but bowled with some good heat and became St Alban’s third Hat Trick taker for the weekend! We ended up all out for 173, probably leaving a good 30 runs out there.

In to bowl we had to be tidy, our openers Rowey and Pickle were just that, showing all of their experience to get us off to a good start. Both bowled there 8 through, but only picking up the one wicket, conceding about 45 runs between then, a handy start but still plenty to do. Unfortunately most of our change bowlers struggled, with nothing really noteworthy apart from Sloane picking up one wicket. Desperate times call for desperate measures so we gave Aaron Chapman and Rory Hawes – two golden arms a chance, when Aaron was hit for six first ball it didn’t seem so golden, next ball was exactly the same but picking out Pickle on the square boundary, and shortly after picking up a second one with a ball turning back through the gate, no such joy for Rory though on this occasion. We ended up losing by six wickets, and just beaten by the better team on the day, all the best to Saint’s for the remainder of the competition, and Merivale Papanui will no doubt be coming back with a vengeance next season!

Cheers Micheal Beattie

Sporting Edge MPCC Draw for Thursday 8th December .. 

• MP Sporting Edge Championship vs Burnside @ Burnside Park 2 (T20) (5:30pm)
• MP Sporting Edge Division 1 vs Sydenham @ Edgar Mac 1 (T20) (5:30pm)

Sporting Edge MPCC Draw for Saturday 10th December ..

• MP Sporting Edge Championship vs Sydenham @ Sydenham Park 2 (1day)(10:30am)
• MP Sporting Edge Division 1 vs Halswell Canter Lions @ Edgar Mac 1 (1day)(12:00pm)
• MP BBS Timbers Division 3 vs East Shirley Tridents @ Burwood 3
• MP Frame'n'Copy Division 6 Panthers vs Kaiapoi Gold @ Kaiapoi Park 2
• MP Geeks on Wheels Division 7 vs Woodend @ Gladstone Park 1A
• MP Bombay Tandoor Presidents vs Sydenham Hospital @ Bradford Park 1

Facebook ..

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

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

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

Article added: Wednesday 07 December 2022 by Matt Wilcock