Profiles and News - Seniors

2009/2010 Season

2009/2010 Inder Lynch Twenty20 Competition

Karaka Cricket Prem Stats 2009/2010 Season

20/20 Comp
Karaka won 4 out of 4 games in round robin play with one washed out game vs Waiuku.
Karaka lost by 1 run vs Pukekohe in Final

24/10/09 - Senior B vs Glenbrook match report

This year’s senior B side was a new look team with many players making the move up from R1’s. They got off to a bad start against last year’s best team Glenbrook when they lost their two most experienced players in Mark Read and Luke Williams for only five runs apiece. It was a miserable run from start to finish for the young side with only two players in Nick Wood and Ryan Bullock showing any fight, both making 20 and 22. The highest score was in the extras column with Glenbrook bowling a massive 29 wides. 103 was never going to be enough against traditionally the strongest batting side in the Senior B competition but Karaka did show promise and made Glenbrook fight hard for their victory. Luke Williams and Reece Jones were the pick of the bowlers with Luke picking up 3-23 off his 9 overs and Reece picking up 2-32 off his 7. To get Glenbrook 6 down was a good effort by this new look side and there is enough promise there to show that the first win won’t be too far away. The boys are looking forward to a big performance next week and are working hard at training to improve their skills. Let’s hope this is seen through some big runs being made on Saturday. Good luck to the boys.

24/10/09 - Storage King Karaka B vs. Tuakau

With an almost perfect day it was unfortunate that the Storage Kings could not follow it up with a perfect start to the season. With the Karaka balcony almost packed to capacity and in full voice it was not due to the lack of support that the SKKB’s could blame there mediocre, rusty, below par, rubbishy, second-rate performance. Nor could they blame the step up to the next level, as the level of competition was similar to teams they played last year. Nor can we blame Scho if he wants to play up and leave us with no pace and no batters able to bat any length of time that’s his choice. We can always blame Haseeb. It’s not our fault that he battered 11 and didn’t face a ball. But to leave us with 10 on the field is unacceptable and needs to realize if he commits to a team he can’t just walk off if we don’t let him have a throw.
Tuakau won the toss a chose the soft option of to bowl in the first game of the season. Our openers got us off to a good start in seeing off the opening attack. Then Baha gave up his valuable wicket with the softest of dismissals. Monty looked to be struggling and was put out of his misery fired LBW for 4. Fitzy provided his “I look good but score no runs” style of batting getting out just before drinks. So 103 for 3 at drinks looked ok until Survan manages to cut one straight to the fielder straight after and it may as well have been 4 down. DG looked as confident as ever and managed to get a lucky boundary before he got cleaned up. As all this was happening, Jenks was at the other end scoring as free as ever. But with no real partnerships, we struggled to get anything going and lost wickets far too regularly to make any real decent total being bowled out in the 39th over for 171. Survann 43 Jenks 42 and one real average Tuakau bowler had 6 wickets.
Without any real express pace it was up to Chicken and Bambi (who had the added pressure of impressing his father in law. Trying to show him that he had some sort of cricket ability) to make inroads into the Tuakau innings. But they showed us how to chase small totals and got there in the 41st over being only four down. Thanks heaps to Chris for filling in for us, and teaching Baha and myself how to set and bowl to a 7 / 3 field.

The sponsor also has reason to be disappointed as there were no Storage King calls this week.

31/10/09 - EVEN WITH ONE ARM VAN IS STILL THE MAN
BBKings vs P.C.C
This game of cricket had everything a player could ask for in a game of cricket. Baha showed his inexperience at the toss but we got too do what we wanted to do and bowl. With Bambi conceding 10 off the first it looked like it was going to be a long day in the field, but with some tight and controlled bowling we managed to chip away at the P.C.C batting line up and only what could be a storage king record of only 7 wides we bowled them out for 119. Shay Bailey making a real statement with the ball in his comeback match after being 15 overs late he wasn’t able to bowl till the 30th over. His round the wicket bodyline style of bowling having the opposition running scared and was rewarded with the figures of 3/8 but still wasn’t able to emulated his brothers achievements by snaring a hatrick, but still an awesome achievement bowling for the first time in 5 years.
Other highlights of the fielding effort were Survan Naidoo taking a catch which broke 4 bones in his right hand. David Jenkins bowled tightly for the figures of 1/20 off 9. Possibly the poorest display of glovemanship was Monty who only having to move a maximum of 2 meters didn’t even lay a glove on it. D Fitzpatrick got 3/21 off 9
So you would think chasing 120 to win no worries, so did we. At drinks we were only needing 17 with 5 wickets in hand. Then possibly the most retarded piece of cricket umpiring you are ever likely to see. Josh ( I have no idea about umpiring) Graham decided to fire me L.B.W. Josh, honestly if only the bowler and square leg appeal it’s not out, and the way in which you didn’t even process the appeal in that peasized brain of yours, the finger was up before you knew what the hell you were doing. Man you were lucky I didn’t walk down the pitch and thump you with my bat. So then the Storage Kings suffered the mother of all collapses loosing 4 wickets for 0 runs
Enter Van The Man one handed he couldn’t even pad himself up and with Josh ( I have no idea about batting)Graham the deflated Storage Kings saw a certain victory being ripped away from them. Naidoo who had more than a few 330ml pain killers played possibly the shot of the game in cutting a ball with only his top hand. Like how the hell do you play a cut shot with only your top hand, and the way in which it ran along the can only be described as a paddock ready to be cut for hay it was nothing short of a miracle. Then Josh Graham hit the winning runs. That was one intense game of cricket.

Then Fitzpatrick lined up the biggest keg drinking tank in the P.C.C lineup and after a slow start nailed the stump and sprinted across the finish line to win the first stump challenge of the year.

31/10/09 - Senior As - The boys turned up to a Karaka Sports Complex bathed in sunshine for the second one dayer of the season, against Mauku. After a strong win over United the previous week, featuring Mike Schofield and Mike Neale 50s, as well as a 7 wicket haul for the skipper S.J.Kett, the lads were looking to make it two from two. The line up had changed slightly with Neale and Schofield up in the prems, so we were stacked full of medium pacers going into the game. This would turn out to be a real blessing as the day wore on.
The skipper made it 0 from 2 at the toss losing to J.Bain the Mauku skip, who elected to bowl. Sweet as, woulda definitely batted anyways.
The thinking seemed to be from the Mauku lads that the pitch would give their quicks some assistance early on. It wasn't to be however. Workman and McCarty got us off to a great start, scoring freely, running good singles, and looking really comfortable. The ball was coming on nicely from the quickies as the score raced to 83 after 12 overs. Cue the first change, with the slow medium R.Ricketts coming on for Mauku. A couple of loose overs, then he got it right forcing a false shot from McCarty who went caught for 49. 97 for 1 quickly became 99 for 2 with a sharp run out dismissing Workman for 34. Still a good start, and it was up to the middle order to do a job in getting us a good score. However, wickets began to fall pretty consistently, the pitch offering plenty of assistance to the quality slow mediums in the Mauku line up. Hayward batting at 4 was done just before drinks by Putohe, clean bowled with a lovely swinging delivery. Man on debut Terrence Otterson and Sammy Huriwai saw us through to drinks and both were looking pretty good. Post drinks however things got a bit messy. K.Greasley was bought on for Mauku and got the leading edge from Otterson with a ball that held up off the pitch. Then Huriwai was bowled by the leg spin of Davies for 20.
Suddenly we were at 5 for 145 with Josh Snell and Stu Kett at the crease. Snelly didn't last long, trapped LBW by Greasley for 2. Alex Carrol joined the skipper and things began to look a bit brighter with some boundaries hit and the rot seemingly stopped in its tracks. The Mauku slowies reigned Karaka back in with some good tight bowling though, with Greasley bowling the frustrated skipper for 8, and Irvine at the other end keeping the ball on a string and bowling 3 consecutive maidens.Carrol hit a few important fours making 22, and Johnny Boumann grabbed a handy 13, which along with a fine 6 over cow from Ed Barclay saw Karaka through to 204 all out from 45.4 overs. Greasley ended up with a deserved 5fer for Mauku and they were rightly pleased to restrict us to 200 after the start we got. It was disappointing not to bat 50 overs, but a reasonable score on a pitch that would offer our bowling attack plenty of assistance.
The Karaka bowling innings got off to the perfect start with left arm quick, Sammy Huriwai, nicking the always dangerous Joel Holmes out, 4th ball of the innings for 2. Big wicket! Carrol was making a good fist of opening up the bowling from the other end, and Mauku couldn't quite get way from us despite some good stroke play. Huriwai grabbed number 2 in the 5th over trapping Irvine LBW for 6. Bain and Davies though began to build a good partnership and looked quite comfortable until Ed Barclay was brought into the attack and struck with his first wicket of the season, Bain playing a bad shot by his standards, scooping the ball to Huriwai at extra cover. Ed made it a double blow when he dismissed Davies in the same over for 30, playing on to his own stumps to be bowled. 4 for 50 odd and things were looking good, especially when Al Glass picked up wicket number five soon after, clean bowling L.Holmes for a duck. Cue dangerous partnership number two for Mauku. Putohe (who picked up 70 against us in pre season), and all rounder Greasley began to build a partnership getting Mauku through to 100 odd for 5 at the 25 over drinks break. While not quite getting away from us, it would only have taken two or three big overs to put Mauku in the box seat. Things began to look a little dicey after drinks with our fielding starting to get a little too sloppy for the skipper's liking, who let his thoughts on the matter be known in no uncertain terms, Then with the score on about 110, the skipper struck catching the edge of Greasley's bat, with Workman doing the rest with a good sharp slip catch. From the other end Johnny Boumann looked very tidy, flighting the ball up and gettin plenty of grip and spin for his offies. He got one to drop late on the danger man Putohe, who hit it straight to Otterson who completed the catch nicely. Out for 41, and Karaka knew the game was theirs. Boumann, wrapped up the lower order, and Mauku were dismissed for 121, a great effort from the Karaka lads.
With the bye coming up this weekend and a guaranteed four points, this result should see us top of the table after Saturday's 3rd round.
The team is starting to take shape and seems to be kicking off from where we finished last year, as one of the main contenders for the title.

Karaka Team Stats vs. Manukau @ Karaka Sports Complex 31 October from Scott Harding

Well after a lengthy winter spell the lads with champing at the bit to get into some serious cricket action, what more could you ask than to take on the defending champs in your first game up to gauge how the season would fair with a new drinks sponsor on board the lads were super keen.

In his first up toss of the season Jason Pawsey lost the toss and we were sent into field. With the troops eager to see how the off season had treated them Mark Nicholls opened the bowling with his first over being relatively tidy, Paul Hedge came on and got dispatched to all parts which had the Skipper thinking what to do, although the next few over from the openers were a little erratic, there were some glimpses of good form, which after the run will only benefit the team and I guess there Stats. First bowling change was Brien Rippey replacing Mark and this proved as it usually does to be a fine spell of bowling from Rippey ending up with 1-24 and a broken finger from his 4 over’s, The Skip bought himself on and after his first over of 1-3 he though he would give it another crack and ended up with 1-25 off 2, dispatched is the word used to often in our game, dispatched!! The Skipper also bought Wayne Robinson in to the mix and to Mr Robinson’s disgust, yet another catch was shelved off his bowling, I think Wayne is averaging about one per game over the last 2 season of catches dropped off his bowling. Cam McRae also had a tidy spell and Hedgey finished off the innings with an absolute screamer of an inside edge catch off the last nut of the innings to Wicket Keeper Scott Harding. Manukau ended up on a formidable total of 3/183

Our crack at bat and with the new opening partnership of Cam & Hedgey, the boys were confident of a good start, well the start we got we would never had dreamed of as the lads took the total well past 100 before the loss of the first wicket. Cam getting bowled for 36, this bring Wayne to the crease and with his off season training working on his front foot defence, Wayne was playing some good shots, turning over the strike to Hedgy. Then Wayne decided to have a go and was bowled, with all the hard defensive work leaving him momentarily and starting the collapse, this then bought Jason to the crease who has been in good form over the last 2 season for us, he started to build a partnership with Hedgey, but Hedgey was then dismissed for a well earned 86, Jason was the run out for 12, Brien went for 2, Brendan for a donut and that left Scott & Mark to try to conjure up 21 runs of the last over, facing there best bowler we ended up on 6/169 14 runs short, but a very good first up effort against the defending champs.

Karaka Team Stats would like to thank our sponsors for there continued support Monster Energy and www.OfficeProductsOnline.co.nz

7/11/09 - BBKings Total Annihilation

After a year in the making and one team running scared the whole time our paths finally crossed for what was built to be an epic battle. This match “the match of the century” turned out to be much like the Tua vs Cameron fight. With all the pre game hype only one side really turned up to play and the other was left lying lifeless on the canvass out for the count

Well well where do I begin. Maybe I should start with Thursday night were I sat down with the selection panel and was told how we were lucky to have Scho play for us as he had played for the Prems the week before and he shouldn’t be playing .So you can imagine my surprise when I see Mr Michael Neale, ( fringe prem player) turn up ready to play for the top Karaka Senior B team, Oh should I also mention how basically 3/4 s of the Senior A side who quite conveniently had a bye were also selected. So Mark finally got his chance to captain the A’s and was quietly confident with his team stacked full of imports he could finally pull it off against the revered Storage Kings.
The day started with Mr Todd Schofield on behalf of Storage King presented us with our new playing and after match shirts .Baha ,with out the toss of the coin was able to let us do what we wanted and take the field. With the dangerous Josh Snell and Neale they got off to an O.K start. Enter Scott ( THE CAVE MAN ) Bovaird who proceeded to rip the guts , heart and liver out of the top order. Then with some tight bowling from Jenks and Fitzy the brakes were applied and they were made to scrap and fight for every run. This was a BBKings bowling performance that must have made the captain proud , apart from a Fitzpatrick shocker and the usual from DG you could not fault the way in which we fielded and special thanks to our 12th man Snell we restricted the much daunted Karaka team for poultry 150. Scotty B the pick of the bowlers 4/28 off his 9. Josh( My best mate) Graham 2/47. Scho 0/19 off 9, D Jenkins 1/34 off 9. Other highlights of the 1st innings was Rhys Jones who had an outstanding umpiring stint and learnt that if it comes of the pads and they run a single it’s called a leg bye. Then the Kings came to bat. Baha who hooked and pulled the young Hurawai at will got us off to a flyer. Enter SCHO, this fringe prem player showed other fringe prem players how to bat and sent the ball to all parts of the Karaka outfield this was total domination if ever I had seen. But possibly the best part of this complete batting display was when Jenks without the word of a lie put the ball over the trees on the far side of the reserve off SNELL . This was a MASSIVE six. At this point the fielding teams heads dropped while spending 15 minutes searching for the ball realizing there hopes had faded of having any chance and wondering what could have been. So in the end the Karaka B Senior B team coasted to a 7-wicket thrashing. This game went on to prove that all the practice and training in the world just couldn’t beat raw talent. I can’t wait till we get our Otago imports back and have a rematch. Perhaps the Prems might have a bye that week.
Maybe the biggest lesson learnt was that a finger in the pocket was better than a finger in the air.
Big game next week KURA, this will be redemption. See you at Karaka

Saturday 12 December - KARAKA v WEYMOUTH (KARAKA SPORTS COMPLEX)

After the showers abated Weymouth were sent in to bat and were in early trouble. It was a fourth wicket – partnership between their skipper Tim Sealy-Fisher and Vaughan Blanchard that saved the day. Sealy-Fisher played some elegant scoring shots before he was bowled by Hayden Wark, one short of his half- century. All out for 173, the two features of the innings were Sealy- Fisher's batting and Todd McDonalds’ bowling. McDonald was rewarded with five wickets and was well backed up by Mark Dass who has lost the wicket taking premiership to McDonald. Dass may not be taking the wickets but he isn’t conceding many runs bowling five maidens in his first eight overs.

Karaka are well positioned for the second day. They have only lost three wickets in getting to 122. Weymouth’s Vaughan Blanchard is very much on the comeback trail after two early season injuries- he scored 34 runs and claimed two early wickets.

Weymouth 173/10(T Sealy- Fisher 49, V Blanchard 34, T McDonald 5/46, H Wark 2/20) Karaka 122/3 (S Kett 46, S Beare 30, V Blanchard 2/23).

PREMIER CLUB

At last week’s Northern Districts Under 17 Tournament in Gisborne four CMCA players were selected for the Northern Districts team. All four were on duty for their clubs on Saturday. Matthew Gurrey (Papakura), Mat Cole (Karaka), Nathan Williamson (Waiuku) and Ash Vodnala (Weymouth) were all playing on the first day of the second round of the Two-Day Championship. Courtesy of CMCA website

Karaka Teams Stats vs. Tuakau at Karaka Sports Complex Sat 12-12-09 by Scott Harding.

The day started out with a massive shower which had the Premier Boys whipping out the covers for there match, after seeing that we thought there would be no chance of our game starting.

With the Skipper Jason losing the toss again we were put into Bat with the underfoot conditions still a little damp we knew we needed at least 180+ to be competitive knowing Tuakau past results. Batting started of slowly but as we have come to realise over the past few weeks this is how to make sure we bat our 20 and can have a real go at the other end, Hedgey and Cam had the total ticking over nicely until Cam was bowled by a nut that by his own admission he had no idea how to play! This bought Jason to the crease and with him giving Hedgey the motivation he needed, Hedgey knocked up his first ton for the team in stylish form, he has been close several times this year but today’s was special as not only did our team applauded him but the Prems on the other pitch stopped play to give him a massive round of applause, this meant a lot to our guys and goes to show what great support there is amongst the teams at Karaka. Both Jason and Hedgey ended up not out with the total at 184/1 which we were reasonably happy with.

At the changeover we were happy with our total and knew that if we bowled as well as we did against Weymouth from the previous week, we were in with a chance. Cam and Wayne opened the bowling and from we saw we thought it was going to be a short game, in the first few over’s there were boundary’s hit to all parts, but then enter Hedgey who was still on a massive high and obviously jaded and running in off the short run up he had the guy doing all the damage knicked out behind, then enter a guy who held the bat more like a golf club and was soon (one ball later) walking back to the clubhouse. With wickets falling at regular intervals we knew we had a chance, they still required 40 odd off 5 over’s and they were in it as well. There last wicket fell to Wayne’s tidy bowling and a good low catch from the keeper Scott to end there innings and giving us the win. We then walked off the field ecstatic with the 2 points to yet another round of applause form the Prems, which made it an even more satisfying win. We will be in the top 4 now and now wait for other results to come in and hopefully 2nd place going into the Xmas break.

Sat 12 December - SENIOR HAS BEENS SHOW THEY AREN’T QUITE PAST IT YET

With Shazza putting pressure on me not to play due to Carters birthday I put the team first unlike one other who chose to go to Christmas in the Park and ditch the sinking ship. In the context of the competition, this was a make or breaks game for the Storage Kings.

We arrived at Tuakau with the weather closing in on us and the possibility of one point for the draw looking like a good result in the scheme of things considering we were playing top of the table. But after 45 minutes of rain and drizzle we took to the field.
Since our turncoat Bambi Graham chose Christmas in the Park. Jenks stood up and took the new ball and along with Chicken produced some tight bowling to have both the openers out in the 9th and 10th overs caught by Kano at square leg. Tuakau then proceeded to dig in and were 87 for 2 at drinks. With a brilliant display of captaincy Baha brings back Chicken and wicket first ball after drinks. Jenkins and Fitzpatrick in tandem then absolutely decimate the Tuakau middle and lower order along with a first class display of fielding to have them all out for 155 in the 35th over. Fitzpatrick leading the team off the field with figures of 4 for 23. Jenkins 3 for 40. Chicken 2 for 21. Scotty T taking 3 catches but dropped a sitter in the slips.

So with 11 batters the Storage Kings were confident of a much needed victory. After strict instructions not to give the slips catching practice Van offers the simplest of chances and was on his way. DG and Snell started to work the ball around and got us close to 50 before Snell mistimed a pull shot and was out for 18. Jenkins proceeded to play the “ I have to leave early card “ and was promoted to 4. He showed no team commitment and was out for 6. Meanwhile DG was doing his usual heaves across the line managed to hit a 6 , frustrated the fielding team along with Fitzpatrick were putting together a useful partnership. DG then skied one and the outfielder took and excellent running catch. So at drinks it was 92/4 and almost in the bag. Enter Tuakaus version of the Big Red Machine. Kano out first ball after drinks , Chicken two balls latter, Monty gone for a golden. Enter a captain under enormous pressure. After a ROYAL last week he found himself coming in on a hatrick. I can’t imagine the head space he would have been in. He was then struck low on the pads and they were up like a pack of Pakis, the ever cool Snell shook his head and just said nup. So we met at the end of the over equally as nervous as each other, the team 92/7. The senior has beens then stood up and did what they should have been doing all year and that was to bat, bat and bat bringing us home in the 31st with MOM MVP Fitzpatrick 40 not out and Baha 29 not out.

Karaka Senior B (211/6) (Mark Read 88 Not out) lost to Glenbrook

There is only one reason for writing about this match and that is to make special reference to a brilliant innings by the skipper Mark Read. It should have been a match winning innings but Karaka’s bowlers failed to fire and back up a good total. Karaka were reeling at 4 for 54 when mark Read and Ryan Bullock got together to start the recovery process. Mark batted well with Ryan (21) as well as Terrence
(19) to get the score up to something that should have won the game.
At the death Mark managed to punish the bowling and get close to what would have been a brilliant maiden hundred but unfortunately he simply ran out of over’s.
Thomas Ketels was the pick of the bowlers and was unlucky not to have more than his two wickets but otherwise it was an ordinary fielding and bowling performance. Karaka know they have the ability to beat any side and it’s just a matter of playing well for the whole 90 over’s. We are looking forward to next year and trying to push closer to the top of the table.

Some photos from 1st half of season