The King’s High School 1st XI played in the McCullum Cup T20 Cricket Competition during Labour Weekend. King’s has never won the pre-season tournament named after Old Boys and Blackcaps Brendon and Nathan McCullum, but managed to share the title with Wakatipu High School this year after the second day of the competition was washed out.

King’s first game was against a young John McGlashan side on the artificial at Culling Park. Logan Wilson took two quick wickets to have them reeling at 8/2. A 70-run partnership ensued, but Wilson (3/17), Beckham Wheeler-Greenall 3/22 and Michael Flanagan 2/25 all contributed to restrict them to 125/9.

The King’s chase started extremely well and the game was effectively decided after three overs with King’s 50/0. Beckham got a quick-fire 40 runs off 20 balls, allowing us to cruise to victory in the 15th over for the loss of only four wickets. Marno Potgieter and Joe Ingram finishing the job with 23* and 14* respectively.

Our afternoon game was against Otago Boys' High School (OBHS) and after winning the toss King’s decided to bat first. What followed was one of the most impressive school boy innings I have witnessed. Beckham Wheeler-Greenall made 102 off only 55 deliveries, including seven 4s and six 6s! He was ably supported by Jacob Murray (31), putting on a 127-run partnership for the 2nd wicket. King’s final tally was an impressive 173/6.

OBHS also has a strong top order, but chasing more than 8.5 runs per over is a tough ask in Cricket an any level. Flanagan 4/22 and Murray 2/11 tore through the opposition line up, leaving them 67/7. Oram Gutsell cleaned up the tail with 3/19 to give King’s a comprehensive 43-run win.

At the end of day one, King’s and Wakatipu both had two wins, so were destined for a ‘dead rubber’ pool game in the morning and a final in the afternoon. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t play ball with overnight and morning rain preventing any play. This meant the 2020 McCullum Cup was shared between the two schools, both winning it for the first time.