Brilliant Barrett Bashes Ton

Barrett Bashes Brilliant Ton

Saturday the 6th of October marked the first competition game for our premier side who travelled down to Stratford to kick their season off.

With the forecast surprisingly brilliant, NPMUCC won the toss and promptly elected to bat first, much to the delight of returning veteran Dean Robinson who quickly got stuck in to his work.

After losing his opening partner and our leading run scorer last season, Ryan Fleming, Robinson in partnership with both Kurt Leuthart (23) & Jarred Cunningham (46) set about building the innings and ticking over the scoreboard as he does so well.

At the second drinks interval the score was 150-2 which appeared to be the perfect platform to launch from. After both Cunningham and Watson failed to capitalise on this in strode an aggressive Josh Barrett fresh off no pre-season training.

Robinson and Barrett were brilliant together putting on 92 runs in 11.3 overs before Robinson was caught on the boundary falling agonisingly close to yet another ton, gone for 90 off 134 deliveries.

With just 5 overs to go, Barrett had the freedom to take it to the opposition bowlers which he had no hesitation in doing so. Barrett pummelled the ball to, and over all parts of the ground from deliveries most bowlers would have been happy with at the end of an innings, but Barrett’s hand speed, strength and pure striking of the ball was too much for the opposition to contain.

At the start of the 49th over Barrett was on 94 and found himself at the non-striker's end but after two delivers Barrett managed to get on strike and then played the shot of the season, a pure cover drive for six, bringing up his second ton for the club, much to the delight of his teammates! An impressive innings that contained 3 boundaries and 10 sixes and a strike rate of 181, finishing on 100 off 55 balls.

NPMUCC ended up posting 324/6 off their 50 overs which the team were confident would be enough going in to the lunch break.

NPMUCC then took the field with both Ryan Watson and Josh Barrett opening the bowling who effectively bowled them out of the game in the first 11 overs as Stratford could only manage 25 runs, meaning they required 300 off 39 overs. Josh Barrett was particularly economical conceding just three runs in the 5 overs he bowled.

The scoreboard pressure quickly mounted and it wasn’t long before the first breakthrough came as the Stratford batsmen tried to get on with it, Michael Blanks claiming the first wicket with a nice piece of flight and guile to see opening batsmen Lightoller reaching for the ball and holing out to long off.

The pressure from the bowlers was relentless and as a result wickets fell at regular intervals. The wickets were shared around the well-balanced bowling attack. Michael Blanks finished his 10 overs with 2-41. Arguably debutant Robson Chapman was the pick of the bowlers finishing his 10 overs with 3 for 30 and taking the prized scalp of Liam Muggeridge in the process. Jacob Richards was also handy grabbing 2-45 off 7 and Kurt Leuthart’s return to the club saw him snare 3-42 off 9.1 overs and taking the last wicket with a brilliant piece of bowling luring out Neil Harper and Sean Mosquera did the rest, stumping him and sealing a 107 run vicTAURy for the NPMUCC side.

In the other games, results probably went the way most expected them to.

Woodleigh were up against FDMC who won the toss and elected to bat first. Unfortunately for the College side they struggled to put partnerships together as they lost wickets at regular intervals with only Matt Allen offering any real resistance with a patient 45 off 82 balls.

The wickets were shared between the Woodleigh bowlers with Taylor Williams leading the way at the top of the innings ending up with 3-27. He was aptly supported by left armer Scott Evans who picked up 2-26 and Nick Standen continuing to prove his worth with his useful offies grabbing 3-26. FDMC all out for 120.

Woodleigh made short work of the run chase getting through to the target 3 down in just 20 overs with Phillip Barraclough leading the way with 55* and Josh Roguski who rode his luck, scoring 33. A win to Woodleigh by 7 wickets.

In the game between Hawera and Inglewood, Inglewood batted first were bowled out in the last over of the innings scoring 226 with veteran Aaron Zame top scoring with 62. Some useful contributions from Brent Stevens (21), Matt Simpson (30), Luke Dravitzki (31) and Hayden McIntyre (34) and Hawera bowlers chipped in with 30 too.

Cody McGrath lead the way with the ball for Hawera taking 4-41 from his 10 and was supported nicely by Liam Heibner who picked up 3-35 off his 8 overs.

At lunch Hawera probably would have fancied their chances however the experienced Inglewood attack did what they do best and strangled the Hawera batsmen with economical bowling which quickly turned in to wickets. Marty Keegan at the top picked up 3-21 off his 10, and then the wylie Jason Dombroski followed him with his impeccable line and length as he grabbed 4-29 while working in partnership with Luke Dravitzki who took 3-8 off just 3 overs as Hawera were bowled out for 89. A win to Inglewood by 137 runs.

In the last match of the round, Old Boys played NPBHS and as you would expect with a team that is full of rep players and experience in the likes of Matt Shaw, Jamie Watkins, Dean Stewart and Kent Jordan Old boys were too strong for the school boys.

Boys High batting first managed to get their way through to 180 with handy contributions from Ryan Gilmour (36), Oliver Burbidge (34), Jordan Gard (28), captain Ben Frewin (21) and player coach Mike Rubick (22). Spinners Mattie Thomas and Dean Stewart did most of the damage for Old boys with Thomas the most impressive grabbing 4-19 off his 10 and Stewart took a useful 2-27 off 6.

In reply, Boys High grabbed a couple of early wickets courtesy of Tyler Slingsby who was impressive with 2-23 off his 9 overs but as the experience of the Old Boys team entered the crease the game quickly slipped away from the school side as Mattie Thomas (47), Ross Bryans the Old Boys pro (61*) and Matt Shaw (52*) all got stuck in and made light work of the run chase . A win to Old Boys by 7 wickets.

So after round 1, 4 teams all picked up bonus point wins:

1st = 5 Points: Inglewood, New Plymouth Old Boys, Woodleigh & NPMUCC

5th = 0 Points: Hawera, Boys High, FDMC & Stratford.