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Welcome to the latest Otago Country Cricket newsletter. It seems a long time since the last one and there’s just so much going on that we need to let you all know about. Our Hawke Cup team qualified for a Hawke Cup challenge which is huge news for an association of our size. These challenges don’t come around often and it’s been nine years since our last one, 2011 against North Otago, which ended with us winning the coveted trophy. Congratulations to Fraser Wilson for running the program and coach Rhiane Smith and co-captains Tim McCormick and Sam Blakely for steering the team to the challenge, 13-15 March at Rangiora against a tough Canterbury Country side. Good luck lads. Check out the team here:  Molyneux Park has had its pitch block upgrade completed earlier in the week and all that remains is for the grass to grow. Well done to the Delta team and congratulations to the CODC for going ahead with the project. This was the first major work done on the block since the early 1970’s so really well overdue. I’d also like to make mention of the co-operation from the Alexandra Rugby Club who agreed to delaying the start of playing games on the No1 ground so this could go ahead and also a big thank you to the Alexandra Athletics Club for the understanding after the disruption to their program. The upgrade should see the future proofing of this iconic cricket ground for many years to come.  A huge congratulations to our Summer Coach, Ashlee Hammond who took the plunge and married her longtime companion last Saturday and has now become Mrs Ashlee Ryan. We wish Ashlee and Shane a long and happy life together. We are really excited to have a game coming up on the 15th March at Molyneux Park No4 between an Otago Country Secondary Schools X1 and the Chairmans X1. We see this as a way of giving our secondary school people the opportunity to play with and against some of their peers as well as rubbing shoulders with a former BLACKCAP, former Otago Volts, current Otago Spark and a mixture of senior club players from both the Vincent and South Otago competitions. The SS team will be coached by Gihan Fernando who is in charge of a few of our rep sides and captained by Shayne O’Connor. Details here:  A reminder to all that we are holding a 65-year reunion on 15-17 January 2021. This will also celebrate 25 years since we successfully won the Fuji Xerox Cup against Taranaki and the 10th anniversary of winning the Hawke Cup off North Otago. Promises to be a great weekend of celebrations and sharing memories of our association. Registrations will be open soon so keep the date free.
Adrian and I, along with three other members of the Country board, Liz Perkins, Mark Shepherd and Shayne O’Connor attended an Otago Cricket Governance Forum in late February in Dunedin. We joined members from the Otago Cricket, Southland and North Otago boards to discuss how we all went about our business and exchanged ideas on how best to progress going forward. There was plenty of discussion and it was a good chance to meet people in the same roles from different districts. The general feeling was that these should happen more often. Adrian, Sam and Ashlee have been busy with all sorts of cricket happening throughout the region. Four senior college teams played their T20 Super Smash playoffs on Monday at Molyneux Park. Verdon College from Southland ran out the winners with the other teams competing being Taieri College, Waitaki Boys and locals Dunstan High School. There have been school visits, festival days, holiday programs and the increasingly popular Girls Smash in Alexandra, Queenstown and Wanaka as well as the Boys Blast at those three venues. After school Superstar academies have been ongoing as have our age-group representative programs so there has been plenty of our chosen sport to keep everyone busy and interested. Not to mention the BLACKCAPS test series win over India and the Volts completing a great win over old foes Canterbury earlier in the week. Last chance this week to get out and support your local club sides as they play their finals this weekend in the Vincent competition while the semi-finals of the 40 over part of the season down south in the South Otago competition go ahead. Good luck to all involved. I might be slightly biased but check out this link to the best Facebook page going around to keep up with all the happenings on cricket in Otago Country. Cheers, Jonesy
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The following boys are invited to play in a year 7/8 match in Alexandra on Sunday 1 MARCH at 10:30am. If anyone is unavailable please contact Sandy Wilson {sandywilson100@gmail.com): -
Alex Scott Alfie Omelvena-Flame Angus McDiramid Angus O’Neill Baxter Dimond Billy Wilson Connor Bruce Ethan McSkimming Finley WIlliamson Harley Turnbull Harry Walker-Leach Hugo Bogue Jack O’Connor Jack Scott Josh Ede Kade Laurie Liam Clark Lucas Haig Oscar Crowe Ritchie Cavanagh Toby Duncan Toby Gailee Zach Johnstone A new youth cricket competition, T20 Youth Slam, was launched in Central Otago last Friday night with six youth age teams (years 9,10 and 11) competing in the first of two T20 tournaments that will be held this season. Why the change to Friday night cricket? Junior cricket in Central Otago is very healthy with good playing number across all clubs. However, when boys and girls move to secondary school there has been a large drop off in playing numbers. Last season saw only four team competing in an organised Saturday competition so teams ended up playing the same guys each weekend which made it a bit stale. The change to Friday night is designed to free up the weekends for players but also provide opportunities for talented and committed players to play in other competitions (e.g. school teams in reserve grade on Saturdays). Potentially this will enable schools to strengthen a team in the Senior Reserve competition by adding Year 10/11s. The change is already paying dividends with renewed interest in the competition and the introduction of two new teams, Cromwell and an all girls team from Dunstan High School. Several other changes such as the use of CricHQ for scoring, marketing the competition on Instagram and the use of white/pink balls has also created more interests and excitement for players.   Kohen Bryant-Saunders (63 off 25 balls) and Mika Tait (54 off 33 balls) scored well in the first round of the Youth Slam on Friday night. Well done boys Maz Cameron from the Dunstan Devils was the other player to pass 50 (56* v Queenstown) Kohen Bryant-Saunders hits one of his 13 boundaries in a well compiled 63 v Cromwell Miners.  rOUND 1: TOP RUNSCORERS rOUND 1: Top Wicket-takers Congratulations to the following boys who have been selected to represent Otago Country in the at the South Island Primary School Tournament in Westport (Jan 6-10) and the Otago Country Development team.
These teams will play against Southland Country and Invercargill in Gore on Sunday 10 November:. SIPST/OCCA Gold (coaches Matt Anderson, Mark Tait. Manager Rowan Small) Mika Tait (Molyneux) Mason Clarke (Queenstown) Hugo Bogue (Queenstown) Jackson Clark (Albion) Simon Cavanagh (Blacks Hill) Will Anderson (Albion) Sage Paterson (Maniototo) James Dougherty (Albion) Alfie Omelvena-Flame (Clutha Valley) Ashton White (Queenstown) Xavier Small (Queenstown) Development Team/OCCA Blue (Coach Sandy Wilson) Billy Wilson (Cromwell) Oscar Pullar (Queenstown) Josh Viana (Queenstown) Jack Scott (Albion) Harry Lithgow (Blacks Hill) Matt Langford (Queenstown) Richard Cavanagh (Blacks Hill) Kobi Simmers (Albion) Jock Duncan (Maniototo) Oscar Crowe (Albion) Zach Johnson (Molyneux) Sunday 10 November: Hamilton Park in Gore. Game 1: 10:30am Start Otago Country Gold v Invercargill, HP1 Otago Country Blue v Southland Country, HP2 Game #2: 1:15 Start Otago Country Gold v Southland Country, HP1 Otago Country Blue v Invercargill, HP2. HP1 is closest to the carpark. Your coaches will be in touch with further information. Congratulations to the following players that have been selected for the Otago Country Hawke Cup, Development and Colts teams.
Otago Country Hawke Cup: Sam Bastin (Queenstown) Sam Blakely (Maniototo) Caleb Carson (Clutha/Green Island) Tim Cotter (Albion) Taylor Cumberland (Albion) Marcus Frost (South Otago/Taieri) Steven Hobson (Albion) Adam Hubber (Queenstown) Cameron Jackson (Queenstown/Taieri) Tim McCormick (Blacks Hill) James Pyle (Maniototo) Reuben Pyle (Maniototo) Sukhdev Sandhu (Cromwell) Coach: Rhiane Smith Fixtures: Nov 24 – Stewart McKnight Cup OCCA v Dunedin Metro Dec 1 Sunday – 11 am to 1 pm training at Molyneux Park Dec 7/8 v North Otago at Molyneux Park Jan 11/12 v Mid Canterbury at Molyneux Park Feb 1/2 v Southland at Invercargill Feb 15/16 v South Canterbury at Timaru Otago Country Development: Sam Bastin (Queenstown) Caleb Carson (Clutha/Green Island) George Catto (Blacks Hill) Marc Cormack (Maniototo/North East Valley) Tim Cotter (Albion) Angus Herron (Queenstown) Adam Hubber (Queenstown) Tim McCormick (Blacks Hill) Sam Pimm (Cromwell) Reuben Pyle (Maniototo) Gareth Radford (Queenstown) Sukhdev Sandhu (Cromwell) Swaran Sandhu (Queenstown) Fixture: OCCA Development v Southland Development at Molyneux Park Sunday 17 November 11 am Otago Country Colts: Will Casey (Kaitangata) Reece Collin (Queenstown) Marc Cormack (Maniototo/North East Valley) Finn Farquharson (Cromwell) Jordan Gibbons (Queentown) Toby Hart (Queenstown) Angus Herron (Queenstown) Ryan Jones (Cromwell) Lachie Marshall (Queenstown) Seth Mawhinney (Queenstown) Sam Pimm (Cromwell) Kelan Smith (Clutha) Gabe White (Queenstown) Coach: Gihan Fernando Fixtures: OCCA Colts v Southland Colts at Molyneux Park Sunday 24 November 11 am More fixtures TBC  Congratulations Upper Clutha who have taken out the Crosby Morris this season. Upper Clutha 250/8 defeated South Otago (116/10) Batting First, Upper Clutha lost the wicket of Tim Cotter off the first ball from Nathan White but useful contributions from the rest of the top order (Sukadev Singh 64,Sam Pimm 38, Joe Cotter 31) got Upper Clutha back on track before Scott Mitchell contributed a quick fire 51 off 38 balls and boosted the total to 250/8 off 50 overs (F Parker 3/44, N White 2/37, K Thompson 2/43). In reply, South Otago were in trouble early and and never really got going. Only Jeremy Gray 32, Kelan Smith 24 and some lusty hitting from Francis Parker 27* offered any resistance to the pace of Tom Myles (3/11) and Ryan Jones (4/40). Maniototo-Valley (156/10) defeated Queenstown 137/10 An under strength Maniototo-Valley defeated Queenstown in a low scoring match at Dunstan High School. Hardik Patel (79) and Gabe White (35) scored the majority of the runs while Angus Heron (4/17) and Sam Bastin (4/24) were the chief destroyers. Queenstown could only muster 137 (C Jackson 47) and were bowled out in only the 28th over (George Catto 3/45, O Alva 2/9, A Singh 2/33).  Barry Becker presents Upper Clutha captain, Sam Pimm, with the Crosby Morris 'Country Cup at Dunstan High School". The Crosby Morris tournament has been played for since 1924.
Congratulations to the following boys who have been selected to play in development matches against Invercargill and Southland on 3 November in Alexandra. Note that other boys will will have opportunities to be selected in OCCA development teams in other inter-district fixtures and at the Butter Wilson Super Smash scheduled for 17 November 2019.
Game details below:
Please meet at 09:30am to allow the selectors/coaches time to sort everyone out . Game 1: 10:30am Start Otago Country Gold v Invercargill, Molyneux #3 Otago Country Blue v Southland Country, Molyneux #4. Game #2: 1:15 Start Otago Country Gold v Southland Country, Molyneux #3. Otago Country Blue v Invercargill, Molyneux #4. If you have any questions please contact Rowan Small on 021 455 524 or Mark Tait 027 2819 170  South Otago
Central Otago
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