Year 8

Year 8 Zone Tournament: Wellington West vs Upper Hutt at Fraser Park, 11/12/11

In our third game of the tournament we were back out at Fraser Park, on an artificial pitch with a lush outfield. We were asked to bat and although Upper Hutt’s swing bowling was wayward in the humid conditions, we were soon in a bit of trouble before Arun Betty and Matthew Robertson steadied the innings with a 50 run partnership. Some strong hitting late in the innings from Thomas Harding and Josh Peake saw us though to 150 off 40 overs.

Upper Hutt’s reply was based around one of their openers, who was unfortunately dropped a couple of times, as he made his way to 53. After 20 overs they were well on target, even though our spinners had slowed the scoring rate. After the break, our spinners started to strangle the run chase, and the return of Ashad Langdana saw their opener depart as he tried to hit out against more familiar faster bowling. The pressure began to build and Upper Hutt fell behind the run rate, needing 6 an over off the last 6 overs. The problem for us was who would replace Ashad after his miserly spell came to an end? Unfortunately runs started to flow again with some straight hitting and cheeky singles, using up both lives from the odd run-out rule of the tournament. Upper Hutt got the winning run, ironically a wide, with 2 balls left.

Honours Board: Matthew Robertson 27, Thomas Harding 26, Ashad Langdana 3 wickets and 2 catches, Finn Chemis 2 wickets and a catch.

Year 8 Zone Tournament: Wellington West v North City at Kilbirnie Park, 04/12/11

Match cancelled owing to rain.

Year 8 Zone Tournament: Wellington West vs Lower Hutt at Fraser Park, 27/11/11

Lower Hutt won the toss and elected to bat, and their top order gave a good demonstration of how to play the ball into gaps and run sharp singles, especially with the strange tournament rule that the first two run outs per team don’t count. Rachin Ravindra scored a very well compiled 89 before being stumped in the 32^nd over when the score became 152/2. The Lower Hutt middle and lower order threw the bat at everything, but as a result of a steady flow of wickets, theylost their momentum, finishing up on 187/8, which included just four 4s, due to the very slow outfield.

Our run chase began quite well, but two quick wickets had us on 25/2 after 10 overs. Harry Seyton- Walker (17) and Matthew Robertson (21) battled hard against a very tight Lower Hutt attack to re-build our innings, knowing we had two players who were ill or injured; however, we kept falling further behind the required run rateof 5+ an over. The Lower Hutt bowlers maintained a very impressive line and length, and the field was in close enough to shut down most of the quick singles. The loss of four wickets saw us tumble from 70/2 to 74/6, and so our tail had to play to improve our net run rate, rather than try to win. Connor Jarden (13 no) batted well at the end and he and Josh Peake, running for an injured Karori player, ran some sharp singles and put some good pressure on the field. We ended up on 114/8, without a single 4 being scored in the entire innings.

Honours Board: Finnian Chemis 4 wickets for 18, Ashad Langdana 3 wickets for 32, Matthew Robertson 1 stumping and 2 run outs, Connor Jarden 1 catch and 1 run out.

The Cricket Wellington summary of round two can be read here.

Year 8 Zone Tournament: Wellington West vs Wellington North; Kilbirnie 20/11/11

Collegians Prems combined with Karori Prems to form the Wellington West team to play against the combined Onslow and Johnsonville teams in the first round of the annual Year 8 Zone Tournament. One wonders what our city council were thinking when they laid the new 4A artificial pitch at Kilbirnie Park, because it was literally only 25 cm longer than the actual pitch at each end, and inevitably large holes had appeared at the edge of the block at the back of the delivery stride. The organisers agreed that this was too dangerous and shifted us to an older, longer, artificial block; however we played with a weird outfield, 35m to the square boundary one way and 75m to the opposite square boundary across the senior wicket block and out to their boundary.

Wellington North opted to bat first, and despite losing an early wicket, made good progress by using the short boundary to good effect. Six of their top seven batsmen scored 18 or more as they kept up a good pace to be 83/3 after 20 overs. Only Connor Jarden managed to slow the scoring rate with a couple of wickets in his first 3 overs. Ashad Langdana picked up 3 wickets in the final over as Wellington North pressed for as many runs as possible, finally making 186/9 after their allotted 40 overs.

The Wellington West run chase started brightly, but benefited from the competition rule that the first two run outs of the innings don’t count because Finn Chemis would have been run out without facing a ball – don’t you hate it when that happens! Louis Worthington scored a quick 36, including a fine 6 that easily cleared the short boundary. Several quick wickets then had us reeling at 75/6, and because Ashad Langdana had left early, we were effectively 75/7. Matthew Robertson was joined by Harry Seyton-Walker and finally we got a good partnership going, with the pair adding about 55 runs before Matthew was caught trying to accelerate the scoring for a well compiled 46, including six 4s, and many sweetly timed sweeps to the long boundary which only netted 1 or 2 runs each time. Harry carried on in attacking mode, but was out for 25 in the last over, and we ended up on 143/8, just as the heavens were starting to open.

Honours Board: Ashad Langdana 4 wickets, Connor Jarden 2 wickets and 1 catch, Louis Worthington 36 runs, 2 run outs and 1 catch, Matthew Robertson 46 runs, 2 catches and 1 run out, Harry Seyton-Walker 25 runs. 

The Cricket Wellington summary of round one can be read here.