It was a busy year for the three Burnside High School Cricket teams.

Boys 1st XI Cricket - Gillette Cup

The Burnside Boys 1st XI team play in the Secondary School Boys' 1st XI Cup Preliminary Tournament each year, to try and qualify each year for the main draw of this competition.  The Burnside High School 1st XI players are North West Youth players who trial for a place in the side.

On 15 - 16 February, our boys played Cashmere High School, Papanui High School, Riccarton High School and Middleton Grange in this round-robin tournament of T20 matches, at the Polo Grounds, Hagley Park.  With a 2nd placing in the tournament, the boys headed out to play Lincoln High School at their place to determine who went on to play in the main draw of the Gillette Cup.  Unfortunately, the quick fall of a couple of our early wickets gave Lincoln High School an opportunity to make life difficult for our team, which they promptly did and Lincoln High went on to win the game. The Gillette Cup is a knock out tournament so unfortunately this was our last game.

The Boys Cricket 1st XI - Mahith Balapuwaduge, Toby Brogden, Dylan Chaney, John Cowley Dhanuja Delapolage, Thomas Greig, Flynn Holdem, Joey McDonald, Archie Ovens, Adam Panckhurst, Jordan Sealey, Jordan Sim, Quinn Smith, Tyler Thompson and Thomas Vesty.

A big thank you to Mr Green and Mrs Guillemot for accompanying the boys to these games, thanks also to the North West Youth Cricket Club for all their hard work with all the players throughout the season.

Boys Year 9 Cricket - NZCT Cup

This year we were very lucky to have a large number of Burnside High School Year 9 players playing Saturday cricket for the North West Youth Cricket Club, so this year's NZCT Cup campaign began with a trial in early October.  

The first round played was a mini qualifying tournament at Hospital Corner, Hagley Park on Tuesday 26 October.  The participating teams were Cashmere High School, St Thomas's College, Shirley Boys High School, Hillmorton High School and Burnside High School. Our boys won this tournament in some very testing weather conditions, earning themselves a place in the main tournament draw. 

The second round saw the team playing the St Andrew's College Year 9A team. Our team were strong favourites heading into this game, however as we all know anything can happen in cricket and in this instance it did.  It was one of those games where things just didn't quite go right and lady luck wasn't on our side.  This is also a knock out style tournament, so sadly this was our last game in the tournament.

The Burnside High NZCT Year 9 Boys Cricket XI - Ollie Beardsley, Alfie Bell, Alex Guillemot, Luke Hearne, Flynn Holdem, Bosilu Liyana Waduge, Jonti Meyer-Cooke, Theo Nicol, Felix Neilsen, Cooper Oakley, Jordan Sim, Josh Lamont, Maika Inns and Johnny Kearney.

Thank you to Mr Green, Mr Coster and Mrs Guillemot for accompanying the boys to these games. And again a huge thank you to the North West Youth Cricket Club for all their support of the players throughout the season, and in particular Mr Mike Roan for facilitating the trial.

Girls 1st XI Cricket - Venus Cup

Burnside High's Girls Cricket team played in the annual regional tournament in March this year - The Gillette Venus Cup. The tournament is used to select the top team in Canterbury to go to Nationals later on in the year.

Led by captain Hannah Stanley, the team put in solid performances over the course of the two days, with all players getting the opportunity to bowl and bat against some very talented girls' teams.  The tournament was won by Christchurch Girls High School who will go onto represent Canterbury in the national tournament.

Over the same two days, the Forward Foundation held a festival of cricket for non-competitive girls teams.  We also had a team entered in this festival and for the second year in a row, the team was presented with the Team Spirit award.  This festival was a fantastic opportunity for our new comers to learn some skills and have some fun games against other schools.