The Central Stags have finished the 2021/22 summer with a drawn match against the Auckland Aces - a match that may well have finished in a Stags outright victory had much of the first day not been lost to a sea fog, damp conditions and then bad light.

With the national season pushed well into April by COVID-19’s interferences earlier this summer, bad light had ended play on each of the four days at McLean Park - with the Auckland Aces six down in their second innings for a lead of just 24 when the sun slunk behind the Harris Stand and the conditions became too gloomy for the last time this season.

Whilst the Stags have now completed their summer, the still undefeated Aces and Canterbury continue to play catch-up this week.

Provisional standings have CD finishing fourth of the six teams in the Plunket Shield, with one outright, two losses, four draws and one discarded match from a first-class summer in which weather and COVID handed them few favours.

A potential outright win in Whangarei also went begging after the match was offcially called off after a COVID outbreak among the ND team on the final day, while the Stags had started the season on fire against Canterbury - only for the Hagley Oval weather to turn in the last session, bad light denying them a potential win against then-defending champions Canterbury in the final session after having dominated the match.

That's cricket, as they say.

The Stags’ mid-table finish for the 2021/22 summer will sit alongside another fourth finish in the Dream11 Super Smash, and the silver runners' up medals in The Ford Trophy - having qualified top for the Queenstown Grand Final that the Aces went on to win as well.

After two back-to-back unbeaten double centuries and a slew of extraordinary first-class batting statistics, there will be no surprises that TOM BRUCE has finished not only as the Stags’ top first-class batsman of the summer, but New Zealand’s top batsman (at time of writing and unlikely to be overtaken) with a phenomenal 858 runs from just 13 innings.

Bruce’s scorching season average sits in the top six of all time in a New Zealand season, for batsmen with more than at least 500 runs in a summer.

At time of writing, teammate BRAD SCHMULIAN (below) was also in the top five batsmen nationally, with 541 runs from eight matches including knocks of 117 and 98.

Evergreen captain GREG HAY also sits in the national top 10 with wicketkeeper-batsman DANE CLEAVER just a handful of runs behind him.

In the bowling stats, RAY TOOLE’s breakthrough summer with the red ball produced 23 wickets from just six matches - a tally he may well have increased had he been available for the final round.

Even so, Toole finished as the second-highest wicket-taker in the Plunket Shield nationally this season, tied on 23 wickets with fellow Stags paceman BLAIR TICKNER who finished his summer with a bag in Napier, and Auckland’s Simon Keene who may add to his tally this week

DOUG BRACEWELL was also a strong contributor for the team with 14 from just five matches while young allrounder JOEY FIELD added 10 first-class victims for the summer.

Article added: Tuesday 12 April 2022