Sorry team rather large news letter this week so grab yourself a cold bervage, sit back and enjoy!

Mixed results this week with Bombay Tandoor Presidents going down in a heavy defeat along side Frame 'n' Copy Panthers in a low scoring affair while our Division 3 side currently led by Glen Bellam is yet to put a full team performance together. Geeks on Wheels are still winning consistently and our championship side took the win against Burnside and have secured their Semi Final spot on Sunday as below. Highlight this week was a solid team performance from our division 1 side who secured the win against Sydenham after a few tough games! Now to keep on this positive note  and win 2 more games to secure our place in division 1.

Congratulations Matt Ling and his Championship side who have made the Semi-Finals for the 1-day competition and have a home game on Edgar Mac 1 this Sunday against Halswell Vikings. Any support will be greatly appreciated. The game is scheduled to start at 10.30am! 

Our Championship side are not only in the one day Semi finals but also sit on top of the combined grade with 6 weeks left of competition. 3 x 2-day games left so lets do this lads! Time to work harder than we have before.

- Quick apology to the players below from myself and stats master Micheal Beattie as we missed a few milestone's recently but have now added below for you all to enjoy..

Congratulations .. Kyle Sloane who passed 2000 club runs while playing against hornby for our division 1 side on 14/1/23. Kyle made 52 in that innings and has secured his batting position at number 5 where he will look to continue to improve his game. Kyle doesnt get the credit he deserves and has proven over the past couple seasons how good he really is. 

Congratulations .. Mario Williams who scored his 1000th club run in his innings of 44 against Southern Districts while playing for the panthers on 21/1/23. Mario is our current club coach focusing on our championship side and has put a huge effort into getting the team and club into a strong postition as well as pushing younger players to push for higher standards and higher grades. 

Congratulations .. Rob Campbell who passed his 1000th club run against Lancaster park on 21/1/23 while playing for his Presidents team. Rob has been a solid member for our presidents team since he joined in the 16/17 season and has also taking 23 wickets.

Congratulations .. Kris Rowe who took his 100th club wicket on 28/1/23 where he took the figures 2/24 from 8 overs while playing for our Division 3 side. Kris has been opening the bowling for his side and bowled consistantly well since joining Division 3 from presidents grade. Kris is also handy with the bat and has a club hundered to his name!

Congratulations .. Jacob Wilson who on Saturday took his 100th Senior A / Championship wicket while helping his team secure an important win over Burnside! Jacob has been leading the bowling attack for our top side for a few years now and just keeps improving. Jacob now has 238 club wickets.

Congratulations .. Josiah Leigh who is now Senior A / Championship #292!! Huge congratulations Josiah on making your Championship debut on Saturday. Josiah opened the bowling along side Jacob and bowled a pretty good spell taking his first Championship wicket. Josiah has huge shoes to fill as 2 of the clubs biggest legends, his grandad Malcolm Leigh and Father Darren Leigh also play for the club and both also played Senior A. We believe this is first time for 3 generations to play for our club let alone all playing in our Senior A / Championship side (More to come on this so please keep an eye out for our next news letter and on our facebook page!)

Social event Calendar .. 

MPCC Curry night is always a winner and this season it is being held on Saturday march 18th about 7pm once speeches are complete. $22 per person including a stubbie. These curries are amazing and cooked by club player and chef Ash Reddy so all support appreciated. 

Match Reports from Saturday 11th February..

MP Sporting Edge Championship vs Burnside @ Burnside 1 (1DAY)

This report was done with no scores available as PLAYHQ quite shite!!!

Sorry guys if I have your stats wrong. In our last game for the round robin in the One day competition, we took on Burnside back at the Mac. The track was pretty hard and we licked our lips at the prospect of chasing in the afternoon. Toss lost and we were bowling first. A recipe that has worked well for us this season. Burnside had to win with a bonus point and brought the game to us upfront. 3 quick wickets upfront and we were in the driving seat. One to Jake Wilson, debutant Josiah Leigh and a run out of Ben Ward and we had our tails up. The second session saw us take no wickets but the lads stayed in the fight all the way with amazing fielding and energy and we always knew if we made a breakthrough we were in with a chance. Burnside middle order batted very well and the 4th wicket yielded 100 plus runs. In our last session, we immediately broke the back of their middle order and once the big partnership was broken, we restricted Burnside to 211 all out in the last over. Bert Medhurst finishing with 4 for 57 in 10. The other wickets all shared and a very polished performance in the field in sessions 2 and 3.

In to bat, and Matt and Rory got us to a rollicking start. Rory getting out spooning a full toss to short (short) mid wicket. Fielding practice really! Matt, struggling with some form of ebola, and Teddy smashed the white leather to all parts of the Mac and when they both got out, we again looked at losing wickets in clumps! Something we are trying to improve! Comet hit and absolute sitter to point and it got plucked out of the air. Bert came and went first ball. We got to the target in 38 overs and win with another bonus point. This point shoed to be crucial as we pipped OBC to first place and home finals as a reward!!! Teddy - 60 odd Lingy - 45 Lewis - 29 (I think) - my brain cant remember too much! Now for last 6 weeks of competition. Bring on the double header for this weekend! (if the weather gods are nice to us)

Cheers Mario Williams

MP Sporting Edge Div.1 vs Sydenham @ Sydenham 2 (1DAY)

Build Up - Believing in process of perseverance to keep pushing forward as Team during training and fighting together, along with couple of superstars moving up for helping our Champs side, we bring in more luck charms into our squad to as debutants Andy “Enforcer” Richards and Ritwik “Future Aviator” Parupalli. Even the rain gods were this time on our side, showering some love on pitch irrespective of it being covered. Our attitude and approach towards the game with right mindset set us apart even before toss was done as opposition wanting to wait for pitch to get a bit dry around few patches, so they can utilize their spinners quadrant.

Game - After the initial delay, our skipper “Hipster” made the right call and elected to bowl, commanding the team to execute our skills in all 3 aspects of game. We opened bowling with Michael “Workhorse” Beattie and Matt “Machine” Wilcock on the other end. After initial warm up deliveries to know the pitch behavior, both the bowlers got into stride finding the right lengths on a sticky track with little spice in it. Michael always shows us how big of heart he’s got and not giving up anytime, getting their best batsmen of this season PK after being hit for IPL six for a very athletic grab by “Crab” aka Gilly. Matty stuck to his good lines and finished up the top spell on the trot keeping it tight and shutting the scoring on one side (1/26 of 9). Captain made few required changes in bowling not allowing their batsmen get used at any stage of the game and everyone played their part by chipping-in and claiming few wickets. He led from front, coming back to claim 3 wickets (3/48 of 9) in his two spells. Middle overs combo, Ritwik who did splendid job of building the pressure on batsmen with consistency. Was great see Ritwik (1/20 of 6.4) getting his debut wicket for his valiant efforts not only just bowling but fielding too. Last but not the least Mintu “Hustler” Singh, someone who has lot of brains when coming to analyzing the batsmen game and accordingly lays his plans in getting them. Just name the job and Mintu (2/16 of 8) will get it done irrespective opening, death or middle overs bowling, from ball one his gets into grove with all magical tricks up his sleeve.

For Sydenham, Ilyas steady the ship with his classy innings (50-odd) coming in at number 3 and carried the innings for them with good partnership with Barns (stylish batsmen) to take their total to 149 all out. Michael came back to rattle the stumps in death overs to finish off his spell with 3/22 of 6.

With a decent total to chase on tricky deck, we opened with Gilly and Jibin “Show-Stopper” Joseph against couple of Champ side opening bowlers Archie and Charlie. Jibin picked up his trait, keep showing us what he is made of pure class and always playing with straight bat. He looks someone who wants to just bat and bat long. Gilly saw the new ball off but turned a little soon to spoon a simple catch to mid-wicket to be our first wicket to go. Walked in the Enforcer aka Andy to the wicket taking on the bowlers with his exquisite and trademark cuts and cover drives showing us how to take on the bowlers with his positive framework and mindset. Andy rebuild innings with a good partnership with Jibin. Both carried the innings with their solid defense technique and pushing the scoreboard forward with their elegant stokes. Eventually, Andy fell for well-made 20 on his debut trying to force. Hope to see our Andy continue and compete at the level he belongs. Then next in Jamie “Superstar” Chapman to bat, his presence itself gives us immense boost to our team not just batting but his experience on field to share his knowledge. Jamie understood situation and started to take the attack to the bowlers with ease to take game away. A friendly banter from slip cordon testing power hitting of Jamie, he responds with 6,4 and 6 in consecutive balls to show who is the boss with class. The partnership between Jamie and Jibin was eye watching as they looked complete in control. Unfortunately, Jibin fell again after getting another start with 33 with highlights being flick over square leg and inside out shot of spinner. Jamie also gone for quick well made 29 bowled of a good ball.

Of-course if we take our history there is no story ending with twist in the tale. Our lower middle order collapsed after Sloane, Basa and Beattie gone in quick sessions. Ritwik proved his battings skills too with a very calm and composed head to bring it home with Matty who did hit clutch boundary over the field. All in all, a very much needed win (W in the Bag) and a light to look forward with lot of positives. Team has shown especially fighting back spirit to come back and get into the opponents. We continue to work on few things to put a better show for longer periods with belief in process of perseverance.

Special Mentions - Mario “Inspiration” William’s aka Coach been in the background working hard to setup a cycle in our system for feeding players from lower divisions and creating environment to have support cycle all over the club. Mario has been totally inspiring and instrumental in working with all closely on all ground levels and fill-in, playing across in all lower divisions to identify and encourage players to aspire higher feats equivalent to their potential. Also, Russ who is there always to help us out either filling in or helping us out with his coaching brains and always providing inputs to improve ourselves. Kudos to our genuine leaders Ryno, Scooter, Dave and Ash for their support on and off the field. We look forward to carrying on the same fighting back spirit and relentless attitude to work hard in achieve the desired goals in remaining of season and bag couple more W’s.

 Signing off Live Reporting for MPCC Channel BASA aka Sri aka “1 brings 2”

MP BBS Timbers Division 3 vs Marist Harewood Sunrisers @ Tullet Park

Beautiful weather for cricket starting with the cloudy and turning in to sunny while match has been start. Div 3 travelled to Tullet park to play with Marist Harewood Sunrisers.

Bellsy lost the toss and we were eventually put into field after MH had a big confusion about pitch. Fantastic starting of bowling with Rowe and Jason MH not a good score in first 10 overs. Lachie replace Rowe and Max with jason who had a fabulous spell of 8 over each with amazing swing bowling. MH were in trouble at drinks, they lost their 7 for around 70. Unfortunately Max missed his hat trick but he pushed them in good pressure. MH had a good fight after drinks and they finished their innings in last over with lost all wickets for 170. Finished their innings with some good spell Max (5-30) and Rowe (3-31) Lachie (1-9 from 8 overs).MPCC batting start with Ash and Mani with a good line up, but unluckily we lost our some wickets continuously. Nana and myself also got out very cheap so we are under pressure at that stage. At number four Mr. Leigh came on the crease and he enjoyed bat with our most of the squad. One man army ( Darren) got 60 and he had some fantastic shots and tried to get win but unlucky falling our wickets continuously we finished our inning at 118 with couple overs left.As my point of view Mr. Leigh and Max both are man of the match. One side Max had a very good spell of (5-30) and other side Mr. Leigh bring us little bit closer to the target with score of 60.

Cheers Muscles - Hemanshu Savsaviya

MP Frame 'n' Copy Panthers vs Southbrook Warriors @ Bishopdale Park

The Panthers rocked up to a warm Bishopdale park, there were a few clouds around and a bit of moisture in the pitch from the previous night's rain, a good pitch to bowl first. Andy A lost the toss (4th time in a row) but luckily Southbrook decided to bat first. Andy A started well picking up a wicket in the first over. 

A few overs later Roger picked up his first then not long after his second, we were well on top and Southbrook's scoring was fairly slow. Roger was feeling good so bowled 8 overs on the trot and eventually picked up two more wickets, a great spell of bowling. Southbrook still had one decent batter who batted most of the innings and put away the bad ball, so the Panther's focus was to target the other end. We did this pretty well picking up wickets fairly consistently. It was good to see Harsha back at the bowling crease after a long break away from the team while travelling, he managed to pick up a wicket in his last over. Ronnie bowled in some good areas and picked up a brace. Young NW cricketer Jack Ferris was unlucky, finding the edge numerous times but always wide of the slips. He eventually mopped up the tail with 2 wickets also. Southbrook ended up on 102.

While 102 doesn't seem like a huge total to chase, we knew it was going to be tricky without our star batter Andy Richards. This week the Panther's were basically a team full of bowlers, also missing the services of Dakesy and Mario. We lost a few early wickets which didn't help our cause. Roger and Andy A put on a decent partnership seeing out their best bowler, unfortunately Roger fell shortly after the 1st change bowlers came on.

Andy A played some nice cover drives putting away the bad balls but at the other end wickets were falling a bit too quickly. Straight after drinks the equation was 30 runs required in 20 overs. In stepped Dave Monger who quickly dispatched a couple of lofted on-drives to the boundary. We knew if Andy A and Dave could stick around we would win the game. Unfortunately Andy fell LBW when they brought the opening bowler back on. Then Dave popped one up and was caught and bowled. The Panthers hopes and dreams were then put on the shoulders of Ronnie and Jack, who both batted valiantly, seeing out quite a few balls unfortunately the target was a bridge too far, Panthers falling 7 runs short of victory. Fingers crossed next week we have our star batter Andy Richards back!

Cheers Andrew Anderson 

MP Geeks on Wheels vs Heathcote @ Polo Ground 2

No Report Submitted .. 

MP Bombay Tandoor Presidents vs OBC @ Edgar Mac 2

Afternoon All, going to make this pretty quick in the context of my usual rants as A. I don't have the book (just a couple of fuzzy pics) and B. we got wooped... First and probably only thing that went right on the day was Humey winning the toss, something that has eluded him for a significant period of time and we asked to bat first on what usually plays a s track that gets lower and slower during the day. Not really accounting for the rain the night before we found it difficult to apply pressure early on and suffered from a less than adequate RPO against Davison and Cook. Losing Jason in the 6th for 4 with the score on 11 was demonstrative of the accuracy of the bowling with our second partnership adding another 29 before both Bell (15) and Hume (16) fell with the score on 40 both playing round the corner and caught in the short leg/backward square leg positions. Number four Bushby, making a come back after three years treading water failed to make any impact leaving with a blob bamboozled by Stan and Wade (4) then Pickle (3) not fairing much better both being bowled in the over before drinks off Mark Murphy. At that milestone we were reeling at 49/6 and it really didn't get much better after that. Mendis falling victim to another LBW no score, Mark picking up his third. Then a much needed spirited effort between Mayo and Kapralos stuck it out for 16 pretty valuable runs in the context of the match, that came crashing down with Mayo's footwork as a disastrous slip while turning back from an ill advised run had him with nothing in the tank to be able to pick himself off and regain his ground. Duncan gathering the ball and lobbing back to McClure who took off a bail. Mayo eliminated for 10 score reading 68/8 in the 31st. Frankie tried to get out early but found close in real estate but as soon as the length was on offer the resulting drive didn't hit the required ground as was picked off by Cook moving back over his head at mid on. This left last pair standing P.K. and Skudder to make a dig for pride... To be fair with all the damage done relatively early we would have forgiven the pair anything but surprisingly they persisted for a good 4 overs with P.K. being the final wicket to fall, caught behind for 15 (38) and Skudz holding on 0*(14) a season high balls faced innings. With the innings curtailed at 81 in the 38th the backs were against the wall and we went looking for a miracle and used the mantra "Cricket is a funny game, anything could happen...".

Unfortunately this was not to be. An early strike from Pickle to dismiss McClure playing on for nought, set up the partnership of Carrodus and Howell which effectively removed any chance we had of keeping it close. A couple of scares with inside edges and one or two aerial ball falling in front of players to keep attention on the game, the pair got to 64 before Petros somehow defeated the defense of Carrodus and got the bails jiggling to the ground. Simon gone for 33, but Glynn going boom boom boom (thinking he's wanting something in his room) fired off a series of boundaries (re sixes) on his way to 44*, Crisp making an appearance to collect his fee 1* as OBC tracked down the target in the 13th over, consigning us to our worst effort of the season and needing a rethink before the second competition begins. A bit of feeling sorry for ourselves meant the usual gathering of teams was delayed for quite period of time (trying to drink that tragic event away), but when the effort was finally made it was worth it as we got to pick the brains of some very experienced players and hopefully picked up enough to even the odds a little next time we encounter each other...

Cheers, Pickle. 

Subscriptions ..

Please note that adult playing subscriptions are due for all players. If you have not yet paid your subs or organized an AP with the Treasurer, please organize this urgently. The late subscription rate is $300 ($170 for students).

The club’s bank account details are:

•             Westpac 03 0866 0269318 000

•             Merivale Papanui Cricket Club Inc

When making a transfer please state your full name as a reference.

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 15th February 2023 by Matt Wilcock