Year 9 Boys NZCT Cup, Boys 1st XI Cricket and Girls Venus Cup Cricket...

YEAR 9 BOYS NZCT CUP

The NZCT Cup is a Year 9 Boys Cricket Tournament that begins as knockout tournament with teams competing to represent their city/province at the national tournament in February each year. In Christchurch, the tournament normally begins with a preliminary tournament at the start of Term 4 to allow schools without a Saturday cricket programme to qualify for the main draw. Burnside High School would normally play in this prelim tournament. However, this year there was no preliminary tournament so our team found themselves entering the main draw directly, playing a quarter final against a very slick St Andrew's team.  

This match took place on Tuesday 01 November on the number 1 field at St Andrew's College. Unfortunately despite working in hard in the field the team suffered a heavy defeat, after the St Andrew's bowlers made very short work of our batsmen.  As the NZCT Cup is a knockout tournament our journey in the cup for this year came to an end with this loss. Despite the disappointment of losing this game, playing on a grass wicket against a team as polished as the St Andrew's team was a great experience for our boys, and they all took away some valuable lessons that they can put into action with their Saturday cricket teams. 

The Burnside High School NZCT Cup team:
Corban Blackwell 9NHDC, Owen Coster 9SOSS, Johnny Creighton 9STNZ, Gus Davies 9NRSS, Callum Escott 9NSMG, Ollie Fifield 9SOSS, Oliver Grace 9SCRF, Jackson Grant, 9SWRK, Darcy James 9WDNK, Cam McGraw-Alcock 9NQRM, Michael Sim 9SOSS, Dilshan Soysa 9WWTA, Olly Upjohn 9NSMG and Xavier Te Tai 9NSMG.

BOYS 1st XI GILLETTE CUP FESTIVAL

The Burnside High School 1st XI Cricket team competed in the Gillette Cup Preliminary Festival in early February (Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 February). The goal was to qualify for the quarter finals of the Gillette Cup, and while we didn't quite manage to do that, it was a great two days of cricket for all the teams involved.

Our captain Archie Ovens, and the entire Burnside High School team played hard and in the spirit of the game for the whole tournament. Some highlights from the five games include:

• A top score of 18 from Aditya in the first game against Papanui High School.
• Some excellent spin bowling from Felix (2 wickets for 8 runs off 3 overs) and Thomas (1 wicket for 10 runs off 2 overs) in our win over Cashmere High School in the second game.
• Alfie scoring a 51 not out with the bat in the third game against St Thomas of Canterbury College.
• The team scoring 180 off 20 overs in their win against Riccarton High School. Our opening batsman Clayton top scored with 38 runs off 21 balls and Flynn took 3 wickets for 12 runs off 4 overs.
• In the fifth and final game, Alfie took 2 wickets for 19 runs off 4 overs, and Flynn scored a cracking 66 runs off 25 balls.

The BHS Boys 1st Gillette Cup Festival Team:
Alfie Bell, Clayton Cowley, Alex Guillemot, Jack Guillemot, Flynn Holdem, Ben Hooker, Thamiya Kalubovilage Don, Felix Nielsen, Cooper Oakley, Archie Ovens, Jordan Sim, Tyler Thomson, Aditya Tiwary and Thomas Vesty. 

This team is slightly different from the team that was originally named for this tournament due to illness and other commitments.  Thank you to the students who joined the team at the last minute to make sure we got a team on the field.

GIRLS 1st XI VENUS CUP

The Girls 1st XI played in the two day Venus Cup tournament at South Hagley Park on Wednesday 26 and Thursday 27 October.  This tournament was originally have taken place in February but Covid was still making it effects known with a number of school who had been entered unable to field teams due to illness.

The first day of the tournament provided perfect cricket playing conditions, which was in stark contrast to the next day with scattered showers and cold weather being the order of the day. The players did well to battle through to ensure all games were finished. Despite the ups and downs of the weather, the team enjoyed a fun two days of cricket. One of the highlights was Rebecca Stanley posting 82 not out against St Margaret's. 

The tournament was won by the very sharp team from Christchurch Girls High School.

The BHS Girls Cricket XI: Grace Darnbrough, Saissha Gupta, Lola Holbrough, Jiya Narang, Rina Palu, Xenia Prinz, Arozo Rafyee, Rebecca Stanley, Emily Stedman and Saya Stratton.

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Thank you to the North West Youth Cricket Club for providing a quality Saturday Cricket programme for our cricketers, and helping to support the players at the various Secondary Schools' Tournaments throughout the year.