FREE Central Stags and Hinds entertainment is coming to Nelson, Napier, Palmerston North and New Plymouth this summer, with the Stags getting ready to defend two of New Zealand's coveted trophies!

Dates have just been announced and our Ford Trophy and Plunket Shield national champions will open the 2023/24 Domestic season at Labour Weekend (20-23 October) with an away first-class match in Auckland - but that's one of just three away fixtures in their first-class diaries, amid a fab five home fixtures for the champs.

OUR NATIONAL CHAMPIONS | PHOTOSPORT

 

Wellington's heavy diet of Test match cricket - blocking out the availability of the Cello Basin Reserve - is a bonus for CD who host the Wellington Firebirds in both Round 2 (28-31 October) at Nelson's Saxton Oval and in Round 6 at Palmerston North's Fitzherbert Park in March.

Much of the first-class calendar has an air of familiarity to it, with an away visit to Bay Oval again, as well as trips to Auckland and Dunedin.

The Central Hinds will meanwhile make a rare Hallyburton Johnstone Shield trip to Invercargill this summer as Queen's Park is brought back into the national calendar after improvements to the drainage systems.

The Hallyburton Johnstone Shield will also see some day/night one-dayers introduced for the first time this summer at this level, however, the Hinds have not been drawn to play in any of the scheduled matches under lights.

The team will bookend their season with home games - hosting their opening Hallyburton Johnstone Shield (one-day cricket) doubleheader weekend against the Canterbury Magicians on 18 and 19 November at Pukekura Park, and, their final two rounds of the regular season in Palmerston North against Northern Districts on 17 and 18 February 2024.

In between, the Viv Stephens Memorial Trophy - held by the Central Hinds - will go on the line again in Wellington earlier that month when the Hinds meet the Wellington Blaze at the Basin, and the Hinds will also hit Auckland in November for rounds three and four against the Hearts at Eden Park Outer Oval.

Entry to all Hallyburton Johnstone Shield, one-day Ford Trophy and Plunket Shield home matches is FREE admission (with an optional gold coin charity donation at the gate to contribute to our community at selected venues) and it's a fantastic chance to see international players up-close performing for their Domestic sides, as well as to take in quality, action-packed games.

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All home and away matches for these competitions will be livestreamed this summer via our livescoring portal here at www.cdcricket.co.nz, other than February's national one-day finals (those venues to be locked in later this season) when TV1 will be covering the title fights.

The Central Stags won the Plunket Shield and Ford Trophy titles together in the same season for the first time last summer, and have now won the first-class championship for an impressive three times in the last six years.

The last time they held the first-class Shield, they went back-to-back the next summer and GREG HAY and his men have every intention of repeating that feat under new Head Coach GLENN POCKNALL - no stranger himself to winning Domestic titles.

Dating back to the first decade of the 20th Century, the history-laden Plunket Shield championship is far older than Central Districts itself and is regarded as the hardest Domestic cricket competition to win. It requires match-winning consistency across just eight matches (two uneven rounds, with not all teams playing each other twice).

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A little bit of luck with the weather helps in such a short, fraught campaign. Taking maximum points from an outright win (20 points per round) is always the goal for teams to build a lead on the table at every opportunity.

A good head start in the four rounds before Christmas and the advent of the silly season will pile pressure on the chasing pack when the championship resumes for the final four rounds in late summer.

The Stags will resume away against Northern Districts before heading to Palmerston North for Round Six and McLean Park, Napier for the final two rounds in March. November's fourth-round match will also be hosted at McLean Park.

The Stags showed just how important it is to play attacking cricket after lifting the title with a thrilling, aggressive victory on the last day of the season in Nelson - beating the Auckland Aces and, in the process, denying Canterbury the spoils.

Canterbury, by that stage, had been the only other title contender and the Stags needed an outright win to stop them walking away with the prize. The Stags did just that, and finished with a heavyweight five wins from their eight rounds.

A BIG FIGHT AT BAY OVAL | MBUTCHER

Even their near misses were exciting games, getting oh-so-close to chasing down a record 400+ total on the last day at Mt Maunganui in an electric contest with Northern Districts, which featured BRAD SCHMULIAN, GREG HAY and TOM BRUCE centuries.

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As pressure goes on many household budgets, Central Districts Cricket is proud to continue to offer free admission to the popular Ford Trophy one-dayers this summer.

Bring your family or mates along with a picnic lunch and enjoy the big hits from the grass banks, stands or terraces, pop in after school or any time you like!

Schedules for the team's other white-ball campaign, the Dream11 Super Smash T20 season, will be announced separately in the coming weeks, and will continue to offer really affordable, family-friendly pricing and holiday season entertainment for all.

Captain TOM BRUCE and the Stags will open their Ford Trophy defence at home in Nelson, against Northern Districts on Saturday, 25 November at Saxton Oval, with all their one-dayers starting at the slightly earlier time of 10.30am this season.

JOSH CLARKSON and TOM BRUCE | PHOTOSPORT

The team then jets to New Plymouth for a midweek match at Pukekura Park (Wednesday 29 November versus the Wellington Firebirds) and then straight on to Palmerston North (Sunday 3 December) for a rematch with the team they beat in last summer's brilliant Grand Final in Napier, Canterbury.

A few days later (Thursday 7 December) they're back in New Plymouth to host the Otago Volts, and opening the white-ball four season with a run of four home games is a fantastic opportunity for the team to get home crowd supporters around them and play on that home advantage.

The Ford Trophy regular season is comprised of 10 rounds, followed by the 2v3 knockout ('Elimination Final") while the top qualifier proceeds direct to the Grand Final and awaits the winner of that match.

The Stags have been the top qualifier for two seasons on the bounce, and the team will be angling to build a handy lead by the time they play their fifth round - and first away match - in Whangārei in mid-December.

The Ford Trophy then takes a break as well as the T20 season starts, the one-dayers resuming in early February with the Stags away to the Firebirds at the Basin (Friday, 2 February 2024).

They head to Dunedin for Waitangi Day before returning to host Round Eight in Napier against the Auckland Aces (Saturday 10 February). That's the last home match in the one-day season, with the last two rounds away in Christchurch and Auckland.

If you're going to be in or around our home town hubs, ink the match dates into your calendars now - or bookmark our handy WHAT'S ON PAGE - and we'll look forward to seeing you supporting the Stags and Hinds this summer for a fun day out at the cricket!

Article added: Tuesday 08 August 2023