As the editor puts this week's Newsletter together from his Invercargill Hotel after yet another day of rain and a bit of hail and to top it off snow forecast around the South Island passes you'd think it was sometime in June or July rather than late October!! Unfortunately Divisions 7 & 8 paid the price of last Friday's torrential rain in Chch and were cancelled with the other afternoon grades all being transferred to artificial wickets. Thankfully Saturday dawned fine and a days cricket was completed for those teams still scheduled to play. Roll on summer!!

Sporting Edge MPCC Quiz Fundraiser ...

  The Sporting Edge MPCC Quiz Fundraiser has been scheduled for this Sunday 27th October, 3:00pm @ Robbies Riccarton. Entry is $10 per person (Teams of no more than 6). Get your team together and contact Jonathan Collins (Jono) or Sam Gillespie to enter ASAP. Email entries can be sent to mpcricket@xtra.co.nz

All Blacks vs England RWC Semi-Final ...

  All MPCC players and supporters are invited to watch the Rugby World Cup Semi-Final between the All Blacks and England live at our Edgar Mac clubrooms Saturday 26th October at 9:00pm. Juls will have her usual range of food available from the kitchen until 8:30pm and pizzas will be provided during the big match. 

Support Lights for Hagley Oval ...

Did you know that without international broadcasting standard lights Christchurch will miss out on hosting premium content for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2021, including the final and semi-finals?

We need your help! Fill in your details and tick the ‘support’ boxes in the applications to get the lights we have submitted with Christchurch City Council and the Regenerate Christchurch Minister – the links are below ...

https://bit.ly/2oVn9dm           https://bit.ly/2BnI7Ez

Be a keyboard warrior and don’t let the vocal minority get in the way of this world class asset! #letsmakeithappen

Match Reports from Saturday 19th October ...

MP Sporting Edge Championship vs Old Boys Collegians @ Edgar Mac 1 (1-Day)(Loss)

  With heavy rain over night again there was a lot of work to do in order to get Edgar Mac 1 into a playable state, a great job was done by Craig Dacombe to ensure this was the case, innovation at front of mind to use two lawn mowers to fan dry a small damp spot on a length at the far end of the pitch, this ensured we were only delayed by an hour or so before we managed to get some play in, with Henry losing the toss we were quickly put in to bat which started off very well, Henry and Lingy putting on 46 for the opening stand off the first 16 overs, a cautious start but exactly what we needed in the type of conditions where a score of 150 is very defendable at this time of year. Henry was the first man out (run out) chasing a quick single for a well made 14, Lingy fell shortly after for 31. Zac looked to anchor the innings and batted very well, but unfortunately there was no support from the far end, scores of 2, 0, 6, 0, 0, 0, 2* & 1 for a combined 11 runs between our positions 4-11, a well made 31 from Zac gave us a score of 92 to defend.

  Out to bowl we did not have as great a start as the previous week, with Kyle opening up with Michael (in his 50th match for the Championship side) bowling two lengths perhaps guilty of trying to make something happen rather than sticking to line and length as we have been in practice. Morgy bowled well as he typically does picking up 1-16 off his 4 and Jacob Wilson also getting a bowl 1-10 off 3. Pick of the bowlers was newcomer Cameron Norton, a bit unlucky to not get a wicket after bowling nice lines and lengths, 3 overs 0-7. Trying to defend another small target we simply didn’t bowl well enough, again giving away 19 extras defending 92 is not a great way to go about it, with almost every bowler being guilty of giving up some form of extras, as well as eight out of 11 batsmen failing to show the required discipline when batting first at this time of year. We need to improve if we want to repeat the feats of last years One-Day campaign after an identical start to the season (zero and three).

https://www.crichq.com/matches/780643/1st_innings

Michael Beattie

MP Sporting Edge Div.1 vs Sydenham @ Bishopdale 1 (1-Day)(Loss)

  Following a heavy day of rain and many lower grade teams cancelled, Div 1 was lucky enough to get agame in. There seemed to be a leak in the covers as the pitch was very wet come 9.30 when the team rocked up so the toss was delayed untill 12pm. A late change was required with overseas import James Vann pulling out Friday night with a foot injury. After losing the toss we were put in to bat. Surprisingly even though being soft on top the pitch was still very bouncy as Paudel found out with balls bouncing around his chin the first over. The other umpire obviously didn’t see this as Collins (0) was sent back 3rd ball of the second over LBW. Paudel (0) was caught at square leg next over to have the team battling. Ryan Edmonds and Hawkins dug in a bit before Hawkins chopped one on to be bowled for 5. 11 for 3 was hardly the start we wanted but a very gritty partnership between Edmonds and Chapman got us back on track as they saw us through until drinks. Coming out after drinks Edmonds soon fell for a hard fought 10 caught at gully, Comet and Jamie looked again like saving the team but soon after bringing up his half century Chapman (54) was walking back. Nabin was out the next over for 1 and then missing his mate Chapman, Comet decided to get out also for 9. McBride came in and looked well out of touch for his first few balls before slapping a 6 into the neighbouring houses. Feeling like an absolute hero after his massive 6, McBride decided to try it again but couldn’t quite clear the inner circle to be caught. Josh missed a straight one to join the openers in the duck club and on debut Jacob Koster (JK) was caught at fine leg for 4. MP finished on 126 all out off 45 with only Chapman and Extras (37) really contributing.

  Needing a good start to get into the game the new ball bowlers of Dave and Josh struggled early on and Sydenham were cruising at close to 10 per over after the first 5. McRig was brought on and instantly got the breakthrough, waking up Ryan at gully who seemed to be half asleep before catching the ball second attempt. With the right arm rig tactic seemingly working quite well the other rig was brought on at the other end. Collins and Mcbride not only combined to 260kgs of bowling but also put a brake on the scoring. Both bowlers bowled tight lines with McBride picking up 3 and Collins 1, but unfortunately one disadvantage of having the larger units bowling, long spells aren’t really their thing so JK was given the ball. Fair to say this guy is absolutely amazing, bowling 9 overs on the trot and looking threatening at all times, even though his wicket ball does seem to be the one he drags down. JK finished with 3 for 20 off 9 and when Mcbride came back on we found Sydenham needing 7 runs with 2 wickets in hand. Monger returned and picked up a wicket caught at long on very well by JK but unfortunately Sydenham got there in the end to win by 1 wicket. Tough loss to handle after a promising start to the season but there were many positives to take from the match. Also, it was good to see the Seniors come down to watch after their usual 3pm finish after batting first and thanks to John for working extra hard on Saturday morning to ensure we got a game in!

https://www.crichq.com/matches/781276/1st_innings

Jono Collins.

MP Little Brown Jug Div.5 vs Marist-Harewood @ Polo 6a (Win)

  After the Friday rain we were moved to an artificial pitch at the Hagley Polo grounds. If that wasn’t bad enough, a massive miscommunication with our opposition Marist-Harewood meant that they were very late and we didn’t start until 2pm. As it wasn’t the players fault, we agreed to a 34 overs a side match with MP electing to bat first. We opened with Nana and Patto, and they got us off to a positive start. Both batsmen were scoring freely, and we were going along at 5 an over before Nana “yorked himself” dancing down the wicket past a straight one for 20. Mr Leigh uncharacteristically came and went, bringing Ben to the crease. A 90 odd run partnership between Patto and Gilly ensued, comprising of a mixture of restraint and elegant stroke play from Patto contrasted with some dirty heaving through cow corner from Gilly. We carried on past drinks before Patto was bowled for a well made 45, and Gilly soon after for 74 (but not before being dropped no less than 6 times by the opposition!). Useful contributions at the end from Basa and Wilcock saw us through to a competitive 186/6 off our 34 overs.

  Into the field and we started off with Pickle (filling in due to his team having the bye) and Matt Wilcock. Both bowled really well, Pickle (3/23 from 7) collecting a couple of early wickets and Matty (1/27 from 6) keeping them back in their crease and struggling to score runs.   Nana (1/22 from 7) carried on where they left off, bowling tight and with good variation in pace keeping the batsmen guessing.  During this time however, one of their batsmen started to settle in and in classic sub continental style was rolling his wrists on anything around the stumps.  Brayden and Basa both struggled against the set batsman, who was showing how easy it is to score on an artificial once you get your eye in.  Marist got through to 118-4 and were looking favourites to win only needing around 8 an over off the last 8. We came up with a plan to bowl wide outside off to prevent him using his favourite scoring shot, which Mani Jassal (1-12 from 3.5) executed to perfection causing him to offer an easy catch to Gilly behind the stumps.  From the other end, Gaurav Sharma (2-10 from 3) bowled beautifully despite injuring himself and hobbling in on one leg, taking 2 wickets at a crucial time and proving very tough to hit.  2 run outs amidst all of that, of which Sharma had a hand in both and that was enough to get the win!

Another great team effort.  We were put under pressure in the field again and once again the boys got the job done. 2 from 2!

https://www.crichq.com/matches/781075/1st_innings

Ben Gill

MP Like-Minded Div.7 vs Riccarton Everest Warriors (Cancelled)

MP Little Brown Jug Div.8 vs Richmond Rhinos (Cancelled)

MP Robbies Riccarton Blue Presidents vs ECS Gold @ Warren 3a (Win)

 Robbies Blue Presidents took on East Shirley Gold on an artificial wicket at Warren Park for our first game of the season. A few new additions and a couple of losses made for a new look team this season. Things started well with me having a change of luck with the coin toss by winning it. I put Easts in to bat eager to let our bowlers have a crack at them first. Things started very well with both Columbus and Rowe testing the openers with some accurate bowling. Rowe picked up last weeks century maker Gibb early and they were 25/1 after 10. Changed the bowlers then and brought on van Tongeren and Cini. They bowled an excellent spell in tandem and at drinks Easts were 44/4. I then came on from one end while using the starting 4 bowlers to finish their spells from the other end. We kept the brakes on their scoring and managed to bowl them out for exactly 100. For the most part our fielding was outstanding, snaring 8 catches with Knox and Moore getting 3 each. The bowling was exceptional with only 5 bowlers used. Columbus 8-2-8-0, Rowe 8-0-26-3, Cini 8-1-17-1, Van Tongeren 8-0-19-4 and Dyer 8-0-26-2. 

  Into bat we went in knowing that due to the damp and slow outfield it wasn't going to be an easy chase. Opened with Knox and Ferris. Ferris (0) was first to go in the first over, caught hitting towards cow corner. Hastings joined Knox and got us through to 28 in the 10th before Ice (20) missed one on his stumps and was adjudged LBW. Knox (9) and Rendel (1) were soon caught behind and things were not looking so good at 31/4 after 15. I joined Rooney and we nudged it around for a while until Rooney (9) was enticed into a big shot and got caught. We were 58/5 after 24 when Cini joined me. 43 from 16 overs sounds easy but it seemed a long way off at that time. We noodled and bashed the ball around a wee bit and we were able to pass their score in the 35th over with Cini 20no and myself 39no. Grocott being the best of the Easts bowlers with 8-1-15-4. 

  So a good win against a very good side to start with. With a very strong new team in the grade and some existing teams bolstering their ranks this season we will have to be on our game each week to be competitive. Hopefully the weather improves soon and the outfields speed up as running lots of singles and twos is certainly not in our teams best interest. 

https://www.crichq.com/matches/781072/1st_innings

Cheers, Fish

MP Robbies Riccarton Gold Presidents (Bye)

Sporting Edge MPCC Draw for Saturday 26th October:

• MP Sporting Edge Championship vs Riccarton @ Edgar Mac 1 (1-Day)
• MP Sporting Edge Div.1 vs Heathcote @ Hillsborough Dom.1 (1-Day)
• MP Little Brown Jug Div.5 vs Riccarton Majha Cannons @ Bishopdale 1
• MP Like-Minded Div.7 vs Sydenham @ Polo 4a
• MP Little Brown Jug Div.8 vs The Buffaloes @ Nunweek 1
• MP Robbies Riccarton Blue Presidents vs BWU Foxes @ Edgar Mac 2
• MP Robbies Riccarton Gold Presidents vs Sydenham Hospital @ Centennial 1

Mens Subs for Season 2019/20 … 

Men’s full subs to be $260 for a season if fully paid by 31 October, 2019 or if an AP has been established in writing with the Treasurer by 31 October, 2019. Otherwise the subscription to be increased to $300 for late payment. ($130 for students and team captains, or $170 for late payment).

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: Tuesday 22 October 2019