The boys don't play under the school banner in the weekends, but get together to play in the qualifying series of the National Secondary Schools 1st XI Cup, played in the first term of the year.

Qualification Tournament

Burnside High, as the champion the last three seasons, were heavily favoured to compete in the final of this year’s National 1st XI Cup (formerly the Gillette Cup) and enter the last eight.

The tournament was played at Hospital Corner at Hagley Park on artificial pitches, which played into the hands of batting sides like Riccarton and St Thomas’ and didn’t at all favour Burnside with its strong bowling attack.

Nevertheless, a plan was put in place where batsmen were to play without fear and really go for it throughout the first three games vs Middleton Grange, Hillmorton & Cashmere. However despite remaining unbeaten, Burnside didn’t make the final due to superior run-rates of both St Thomas' & Riccarton and thus we didn’t play the other unbeaten sides. A pity, as captain & Canterbury U17 rep Hugo Howard and Canterbury U19 trialist Marc Chaney were unable to challenge themselves against these two sides.

Game 1 vs Middleton Grange

Burnside batted first with Hugo Howard run out in the 1st over without facing a ball. James Glynn started well but it wasn’t until Josh Suzana got into his stride did a greater than par score look on the cards. Middleton started with a hiss and a roar but regular wickets tripped them up before Marc Chaney scythed through the tail finishing with 4/7.

BHS 124/7 J Suzana - 54 not out

Midd 72 all out Marc Chaney 4/7, Josh Suzana 3/22, Hugo Howard 2/14

Game 2 vs Hillmorton

Hillmorton limped to 110/3 off 20 overs, James Glynn taking over as captain from an injured Hugo Howard, strategised perfectly to put the brakes on their opener who finished with 71. Burnside then chased successfully with Y11 Jackson Howard the main contributor with 44 not out.

Hillmorton 110/3

Burnside 111/5 J Howard 44 not out

Game 3 vs Cashmere

We needed a big score vs Cashmere to have any chance of making the finals. James and Hugo started well with Hugo blasting 14 off the 3rd over before getting bowled. James continued on and Josh Suzana came in and added momentum to the score getting BHS to 135/5 in 20 overs. Cashmere lost regular wickets with Y9 Ben Panckhurst getting the last 2 wickets in the 20th over.

BHS 135/5 J Glynn 39, J Suzana 38

Cashmere 76 all out

Game 4 Third Place Play Off vs Cashmere

This game followed a similar pattern to the first game, except that Burnside changed its batting order around so that everyone got the opportunity to contribute, the result was an outstanding innings from Christian Firth who anchored the innings in getting Burnside through to 128 with 42. Similarly different bowlers were used but the outcome was the same with Cashmere dismissed for 80.

BHS 128/6 C Firth 42

Cashmere 80 all out

All in all, an enjoyable couple of days where everyone bonded and we introduced two exciting Y9 cricketers to the mix in Ben Panckhurst and Quinn Smith, who impressed in his short innings. Ben Jackson was good behind the stumps, probably moving ahead of the other keepers used. James Glynn captained well after Hugo pulled a quad muscle early on day 1. Kane McRoberts enjoyed the elevation and had the opposition worried with his pace bowling.