As a core group of Year 13’s have played out their last season in 2016 a new wave of young cricketers has begun to carry the flame forward. 

This includes Finn Lillis our new captain who is still only in Year 11. Our oldest player is Reuben Campbell in year 12. We then have three internationals, three Year 8’s from DNI, Kieran, Dominic and Alex who have fitted in superbly, Laura Graham in Year 10 and only one year 9 player in George Hyink. So we are in an extreme rebuilding phase with a very young team.

Despite this rebuilding moral is still high and the team started the season by entering the McCullum Cup tournament despite knowing it would be a tough battle. This hardened us for the Saturday cricket ahead where we had to be placed in the Premier Schools competition which proved to be challenging as nearly every team is from a single sex boys school.

Mathew Cowles is our classiest player with a fine technique and the added pressure of being our wicket keeper and opening bat. Laura Graham has proved a real wicket taker with her slow accurate drifters which seem to always encourage young men to attempt to smash her out of the park, only to them find their stumps broken or embarrassingly caught in the field.

Our team continues to develop a United Nations feel with two Indian players in Lokesh Menariya and new arrival Yogeish Mamigain. Luqman Ashan from Sri Lanka has continued to improve his ability level especially in fielding and we wish him well for his move to Auckland in 2018. Christoph Brunner from Germany and Reuben Campbell with his Russian heritage round out our multinational flavoured team.

It continues to be an absolute pleasure to help organise and coach this team once again this year. The season ahead will be very tough but we believe that within eighteen months we will be more than competitive with the “big boys” once again.