Taranaki club cricketers will take a weekend off this weekend as the Taranaki Cricket Association celebrate their 125th Jubilee. Every team will no doubt be doing calculations to see what they have to do to make the top 4 come end of round 7.
Last week New Plymouth Old Boys cement their spot at the top of the table with a come from behind win over Stratford, behind by 20 runs on 1st innings the NPOB bowlers stuck to their task and dismissed Stratford for 138, Taranaki batsman Liam Muggeridge carrying his bat throughout the innings with 65 not out. For Old boys the wickets were shared around with Mattie Thomas picking up 3 for 28, Kyle Pillay, Davis Mills and Jarrod Ritson all picking up a brace.
Requiring 159 for victory NPOB got off to a shaky start as both openers were dismissed before the score saw double figures. Josh Borrell continued his form with 49 to resurrect the innings, the win was completed with the loss of 5 wickets with Tem Hodson finishing 40 not out.
Inglewood came from precarious position after day one to complete an outright victory over New Plymouth Marist United to keep the pressure on NPOB for top spot.
Finishing day one at 73 for 6 chasing a 1st innings total of 115 the Inglewood tail wagged and saw them through to 177. Jason Dombroski leading the charge with a half century. NPMU were only marginally in their 2nd innings scoring 122 with Andrew Kelly scoring his first half century of the season leaving Inglewood 61 for victory, something they did for the loss of one wicket.
The big winners from round 6 were New Plymouth Boys High School as the took bragging rights emphatically over Francis Douglas Memorial College.
Already having 1st innings in the bag from day one, NPBHS went in search for much needed batting points and with Thomas Graham brining up his maiden premier century NPBHS were able to declare at 320 for 4, Graham finishing 100 not out. Facing a mammoth 256 run deficit FDMC never looked likely to make NPBHS bat again, expecially when they had loss two wickets without a run on the board. FDMC will eventually fold for 118 giving the outright victory to NPBHS by an innings and 138 runs and moving NPBHS to 3rd on the table.
Woodleigh kept themselves in semi final contention with a 7 wicket victory over Hawera. Hawera couldn’t recover from a disastrous day one as they were all out for 79 in their 1st innings, Shaun Sullivan finishing with 5 for 18. Asked to follow on the Hawera batsman put up a better effort to try and save the game but were eventually dismissed for 237, Adam Keene top scoring with 69. Nick Standen the stand out bowler with figures of 6 for 50 from a massive 31 overs.
The Woodleigh openers were in a rush as they put on 58 for the first wicket inside 7 overs, Shaun Sullivan finishing 33 not out.
Revital Fertilisers Premier Leaderboard
NPOB 68
Inglewood 64
NPBHS 59
Hawera 56
Woodleigh 51
NPMU 44
Stratford 42
FDMC 17
Top Run Scorers
Adam Keene (Hawera)361
Jesse Vertongen (Woodleigh)306
Liam Muggeridge (Stratford)289
Paul Lightoller (Stratford)263
Ben Mitchell (NPOB)261
Top Wicket Takers
Grant Commerford (Stratford)37
Luke Dravitzki (Inglewood)28
Daniel Bernet (NPMU)25
Ross Bryans (NPOB)24
Jarrod Ritson (NPOB)19