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Sports correspondent & historian with |
Few elite amateur sporting teams step into the cauldron of red-hot competition within a month of a new season start.
The Bay of Plenty Cricket senior men’s side, who swept almost all aside last season, face a long road trip and fierce rivalry this weekend, after just four weekends of Baywide premier cricket.
Bay of Plenty head coach Jono Boult mentored his troops to an outstanding 2024-25 season in the Northern Districts senior representative title races.
Ten victories from 11 encounters resulted in Bay of Plenty earning the ND Fergus Hickey Rosebowl (two day) and the Brian Dunning Trophy (one day) titles.
For good measure, they were two from two at the ND T20 championship but finished behind Waikato Valley on countback in the all-action competition.
This weekend, the Bay representatives travel to Cobham Oval in Whangārei to square off with their Northland counterparts.
An added bonus attached to the two-day match, is the lure of the ND Hawke Cup Direct Challenge if they return home with at least some of the points from the game.
Boult said in a quiet moment last weekend; “the Northland match is the Bay of Plenty team’s biggest match in several years.
“A lot of hard work has gone into getting us close to another Hawke Cup Direct Challenge.”
Reflecting on last season’s high level of achievement, Boult said “it was built upon a little bit of luck, and a strong team culture, consisting of a group of mates that wanted to fight for each other on the pitch”.
The Bay coach arranged two days of challenging cricket on the second and third days of Labour weekend, for his wider training squad, in preparation for the 13 games of ND competition.
He went over the ND border to the City of Sails, to invite an Auckland Development XI to two 50-over encounters at the Tauranga Domain.
Game One saw a Bay side chase down a big total to win. Last season’s skipper, Oli White, returned to his sparkling form of 12 months ago, to top score with 88 runs.
This followed 92 the previous day in a Baywide premier match at the Domain.
Another to make a big impression was Mount Maunganui premier captain, Niven Dovey, who hit 76 runs and then grabbed four wickets.
Labour Monday saw weekend honours shared, after the Auckland team defended 223, in their 33-run win.
Te Puke bowler Nihar Parma put his hand up for representative action in taking three wickets, while Niven Dovey solidified further selection in top scoring with 68 runs.
The prospect of a Hawke Cup Direct Challenge would add further serious history to Bay of Plenty participation in the NZ Cricket provincial competition.
Bay of Plenty sit astride the time-honoured Hawke Cup competition, that was first contested in 1910, with the contest’s two highest scores.
In January 2013, the Bay batted then holders Hamilton out of the game, with a massive 701 runs. Just four years later, Bay of Plenty repeated the feat in posting another 701 runs in the Bay title defence against Counties Manukau, at the Bay Oval.
First innings and/or batting and bowling points, in Northland should be enough to propel Bay of Plenty to their 36th Hawke Cup Direct Challenge in early 2026, since their first Hawke Cup encounter in 1932.