HAWKE'S BAY has lifted the first Central Districts age-group title of the summer, striking success in the Central Districts Boys Years 11 and 12 Tournament held at Nelson Park over the past week.

Previously known as the Under-17s, the realigned CD tournament brought all eight District Associations together for a great week's cricket, after an initial near-neighbour round played ahead of the tournament.

Hawke's Bay faced a spirited challenge from NELSON for the title in the Final, in which Nelson won the toss and elected to bowl.

Hawke's Bay was up for the challenge, posting a good total of 211/9 in the 50 overs, despite a strong start by Nelson with the ball that was undone by some loose fielding towards the end.

They had their hosts 80/7, but an unbeaten 86* off 105 balls from Zach Forster, batting at seven, dug Hawke's Bay out of a hole, allowing them to put a defendable tally on the tins.

Forster had batted for more than two hours, frustrating the Nelson seam attack who otherwise shared the wickets amongst them with two each for Bryn Thurlow, Josh Neale and Nathan Downey.

In the chase, Nelson got the better start but, after the initial breakthrough from Jacob Rameka in the fourth over at 30/1, Finn Reid (4-24) and Monty Field (2-16) fired up and ripped through the heart of the Nelson line-up.

Nelson clung on until the 36th over, but a valiant run-a-ball 43 from Jacob Ogilvie at eight couldn't deny Hawke's Bay a 63-run win.

Check more scores and results from tournament week here

Captained by Carl Quinn, Nelson had beaten MARLBOROUGH in its near-neighbour fixture before overcoming HOROWHENUA-KAPITI and MANAWATU in Napier en route to the 7 December Finals Day.

HAWKE'S BAY had also gone three from three on the road to the trophy, with wins against WAIRARAPA, WHANGANUI and TARANAKI.

Taranaki had a tough tournament but rebounded to finish off with a win on the final day against Horowhenua-Kapiti, while Wairarapa enjoyed watching some memorable individual performances from their batters including an amazing rearguard century from Angus Jaspers in a big battle against Whanganui.

Jaspers has come in as the number nine batsman when his side was in real strife at 64/7. 

The tailend batsman and left-arm seamer built two partnerships with Toby Nelson (11) and Hamesh Patel (25 not out) as he blasted his way to 101 off 71 balls, including 12 boundaries and four sixes for a remarkable maiden representative century in the lower order.

Unfortunately for Wairarapa, it was Whanganui who took the win but the next day another young batsman was raising his bat with Samuel Payne scoring 108 off 128 balls in their Final playoff against Marlborough, while Marlborough's Luke Pannell starred for his team with a five-wicket bag.

Whanganui had a good tournament, and headed into the last day in a shootout with Manawatu for third spot. Manawatu bowler Ethan Campbell had a great last day with the ball, claiming 5-11 off his 6.5 overs, while Matt Rowe took 4-10, and that restricted Whanganui to 108 all out in just under 30 overs.

Manawatu finished the week with a good win, chasing down their target in the 25th over, even though they lost six wickets in the process with Whanganui's Charlie Meredith ending his week on a strong note with a haul of 5-30.

Article added: Thursday 08 December 2022