Back into it this week for all 8 mens team's after a week off to enjoy a Blackcaps test victory at Hagley Oval and everyone would have been relieved to see a bright sunny (albeit breezy) Saturday.

Congratulations to MP Cason Kerbing 2nd Grade opening batsman Abhaya Paudel (113) who scored his maiden MPCC century and the first for the club in 2016/17 in a losing cause against Hornby.

Congratulations to James Carr who moved himself into 10th place on the Senior A wicket chart with his 4 wicket bag against Heathcote removing Stan Woolliscroft (160) from the top ten chart having now taken 163 wickets. His team-mate Andrew Saunders (9th on the wickets chart) also chimed in with a 4 wicket bag taking his tally to 165 but blew his calf while batting later in the day and will unfortunately be out for 8 to 12 weeks. A cruel blow to both Pixie and the Senior A side as he was in good form and we wish him a speedy recovery.

Good luck to all 9 teams in the next round with the Women's side coming off the bye. Match of the day will be the 4B derby on Edgar Mac 2 between Malcolm & Jason's sides!! 

MPCC Six-A-Side Tournament ...

The MPCC Six-A-Side has been scheduled for Sunday 11th December. This was a well attended and enjoyable event on the social calendar last season so get involved if you can. All those wishing to enter a team, play or captain should contact tournament organiser Joel Singer ASAP. Joel can be emailed at joelsinger60@hotmail.com or contacted via the usual channels.

Same rules apply as last season with a maximum of 1 Senior A player and at least 1 female player in each team.

Team Reports ...

MP Bishop Brothers Sen.A vs Heathcote @ Heathcote 1 (1 Day) (Win)

This week MP Senior A had a must-win game against Heathcote at Heathcote Domain. We arrived to a much better wicket than previous weeks with some small boundaries – time for some runs! Heathcote won the toss and unsurprisingly decided to bat first. Columbus and Seelen opened up with Nathan putting on a clinic of bowling in the channel. Seelen struggled to find his line and was taken off after his 2^nd over, to be replaced by James Carr. Wides and dropped catches were the trend of the first 10 overs with 3 drops and 15 wides, but nevertheless Heathcote were 30/3. James Carr rectified the early wides to take 4/29 off 9. Heathcote fought back from 36/4 to form some partnerships, with Ruwhiu and Hobbs finding the boundary frequently. Wickets fell regularly though, with Andrew Saunders taking 4/19 off 8.1 off the back of some accurate bowling which kept the pressure on the batting side. The Heathcote tail enders played positively, adding 32 for the last 4 wickets. Heathcote all out for 143 in the 40^th over.

MP Sen.A opened the run chase with Rory Hawes and Ben Mayo. The pair started patiently and provided a solid base before Rory knicked off for 14 with the score at 35. Wickets tumbled slightly though with Carr (1) and Mayo (15) losing their wickets shortly after leaving us 40/3 from 17 overs. This sent out Taylor McLellan and Andrew Saunders to re-stabilise the innings. They did just that by forming a partnership of 53 of which Saunders scored 45 of them until he blew a calf and was carried off retired hurt. McLellan was then bowled in the next over which left two new batsmen at the crease with 50 to win. The two Mitchells – Dimond and Dwyer applied themselves, with Dimond scoring 10 before skying one in the air with the score 107. Dwyer continued though, showing some well-overdue form with the bat, compiling 27 before losing his wicket with 6 to win. MP hit the final 6 runs within the 36 over mark and earn the valuable bonus point.

Overall, it was a pleasing performance with the bat and with the ball in periods, but clear things to work on for next week. Player of the day Andrew Saunders with 4/19 off 8.1 and 45 from 32 balls. Another vital game next week at Sumner to decide the top 4!

Cheers, Ben Mayo

MP Cason Kerbing 2nds vs Hornby @ Edgar Mac 1 (Loss)

Well, Andy Mayo’s been describing his decks as roads all season, and this week, one of them proved him right. Hornby won the toss and chose to bat. We got off to a great start as I picked up consecutive nick-offs in the second over, both taken by stand-in keeper Ash Reddy, to leave Hornby 2-7 as the pitch had a little bit of action early on, but it soon flattened out and the third wicket took 87 more runs to arrive, when Kyle Sloane trapped Dedman LBW for 39. Things might have taken a different turn if I’d caught Kennett on the boundary off Craig Dacombe’s bowling for 0, but instead he and Brice added another 140 for the next wicket, helped by another couple of chances and half-chances going begging. Eventually, Brice was out for 93 off 104 balls, caught by Pankaj off Kyle. Kennett holed out to Dan Fogden on the boundary, again off Kyle (3-70 off 10). Bevan Rich picked up an LBW soon after and I came back on and had Waters caught by Bevan, leaving them around 280-7 with five or six overs to go. This brought on a final onslaught which Bevan (1-42 off 5) and I (3-64 off 10) endured, as Johannsen smashed 47 off 23 to leave Hornby 342-8 from their 50 overs. In the context of the score, Nick Brazzale bowled a decent 10 overs, 0-43, and Dakesy’s 0-50 off 8 would surely have been cheaper if catches had been held, but James Eder and Tribhuvan Sharma had spells to forget and some of our fielding appeared pretty ragged and uninterested towards the end.

          So a massive total to chase, and Abhaya Paudel and Foggy opened up in hopes of a rapid start. While they put together a solid start, we were at 36 in the 12th over by the time Foggy was out for 9. Abi and James added another 50 for the second wicket before James was out for 11 in the 26th over and by this point we needed another 230-odd in less than half the overs. Abi kept accumulating runs at a reasonable pace, but many of his nice shots went for 2s and 1s rather than the 4s and 6s of Hornby’s innings. He passed 50 shortly after drinks and kept building up as partners came and went. Pankaj was trapped LBW for 4, Ash was out for 8 trying to push the scoring along, and Bevan was run out after an iffy ‘yes-no’ call. As the innings progressed, Abi got more aggressive and ultimately ended up with 113 off 135, including thirteen 4s and two 6s, before being caught. Dakesy put together 16*, Kyle smashed 13 off a handful of balls and Sharma was 2* at the end, as we finished off 212-7 off 50 overs. Despite Abi’s fine and elegant 113 we still ended up 130 runs short, and perhaps we could have pushed a few more extra runs throughout the innings. Nonetheless, batting a full innings was encouraging and we can hopefully build from that in next week’s 1-day wooden spoon game vs OBCC. Congrats to Abi on his first century for the club and the club’s first century of the season.

          Dave M

MP Accessman 3A vs BWU Cannons @ Edgar Mac 2 (Loss)

No report submitted

MP Little Brown Jug 3D vs Marist-Harewood @ St James 1 (Loss)

This week we played Marist Harewood at St James Park. Marist won the toss and elected to bat first on a pretty dusty looking pitch. We got off to a fantastic start with Sanjay hitting the base of leg stump with a jaffa very first ball. Despite the good start the bowling was a little wayward early on and Marist got off to a flying start thanks to their big hitting captain Gaz who blazed a powerful 50 before being bowled by Jonno. Ronnie then came into the attack for the first time this season and picked up where he left off last season taking 4 wickets with some great flight and turn. We had them on the ropes but their tail smashed a few late runs to get them up to a challenging 177 with Ronnie being the pick of the bowlers and Sanjay also bagging 3 wickets.

We started carefully as usual and got through the first 10 overs unscathed. Andy was out LBW before drinks but we were still in a decent position with 9 wickets in hand and less than a run a ball required. Unfortunately we were sluggish after drinks and lost wickets regularly including Rochie who scored a patient 43. The lower order pushed on lead by Nick Kirk and trying to block out the incessant whinging of the opposition players but we could only get to 152/9 in the end. So we fell 25 runs short but perhaps if we bowled a little better to their tail and held our catches it might of been an easier chase.

Man of the Match: Ronnie

Joel

MP 4B Rebels vs Heathcote @ Ferrymead 1 (Loss)

No report submitted

MP Accessman 4B vs City Eagles @ Spreydon Dom.1 (Win)

No report submitted

MP Bishop Brothers Presidents vs OBC @ Elmwood 4 (Loss)

No report submitted

MP Identity Signs Presidents vs St Albans @ Ilam 1 (Win)

Howdy all. Idenity Signs Pressies played St Albans at Ilam 1. I won the toss (again somehow) and put Saints into bat on a pretty good wicket. A sick Tonka and Josh Dyer (Nemo) opened for us and bowled very well with Nemo bowling with some genuine pace bowling their opener for 1. RJ then ran out a very dangerous Reado for 0 with some very slick work. RJ and Fish then took over, keeping it difficult for them to score runs. Bellsy replaced RJ and snared Alabaster (26) last ball before drinks. 46/3 at drinks and things going to plan. Mather and Flavell batted through to 32 overs before Flavell (42) was very well caught by Nemo off Bellsy, 79/4 at that stage. Mather (43no) and Griffin (29no) then batted very well to get Saints through to 147/4 off their overs. Tonka 8-3-42-0, Nemo 8-1-32-1, RJ 5-0-28-0, Fish 8-2-13-0, Ice 3-0-13-0 and Bellsy 8-5-13-2 doing the work with the ball.

Out to bat we came and it was Wagga (who had to leave early) who put on a show for us scoring 43 off 27 balls with 6 4’s and 2 6’s. He departed and we were 51/1 after 7. Ice and Harrington kept the momentum going until Ice talked himself out for 28, with the score at 96 after 21. Things were looking good at that stage. But as Merivale teams can sometimes do we suffered a mini collapse with Doug (RJ,s bro in law) 1, RJ 14, Harrington 46 and Bellsy 1 all departing in quick fashion. Rooney 4no and Nemo 3no saw us through to the win 6 down in the 34th over.

A good win against a strong team with everybody doing their job well. Many thanks to the guys that filled in for us this week – Rocket arm Andrew Pankhurst, fielding specialist Doug Gardner (all the way from Ashburton) and young tearaway Nemo. You guys were awesome.

Cheers, Fish.

MP Featherstones Dairy Women Div.1 (BYE)

MPCC Draw for Saturday 3rd December 2016 ...

• MP Bishop Brothers Sen.A vs Sumner @ St Leonards 1 (1-Day)
• MP Cason Kerbing 2nds vs OBC @ Elmwood 1
• MP Accessman 3A vs Richmond @ Nunweek 1
• MP LBJ 3D vs New Brighton @ Rawhiti 2
• MP 4B Rebels vs MP Accessman 4B @ Edgar Mac 2
• MP Accessman 4B vs MP 4B Rebels @ Edgar Mac 2
• MP Bishop Brothers Presidents vs Sydenham Hospital @ Edgar Mac 1
• MP Identity Signs Presidents vs OBC @ Ilam 1
• MP Featherstones Dairy Women Div.1 vs St Albans @ St Albans 3

MPCC Subs for 2016/17 ...

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

Internet Banking ... When paying your subs by Internet Banking ... The clubs bank account details are:

• Westpac, 03 0866 0269318 000, Merivale Papanui Cricket Club Inc
• When making a transfer please state your full name as a reference.

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

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

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