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Playing Cricket in New Zealand

A lot of cricket has passed under the bridge for Andy since we moved to New Zealand in January 2006.

On arrival, whilst living in the City Centre, Andy played a few games for Brooklyn Cricket Club in Wellington; based near the City Centre. He played 4 games for them, but had little success from the four games, featuring short innings of DNB, 0, 1 and 0 respectively. For shame!

After moving out to the Hutt Valley, Andy switched allegiances to Taita Cricket Club, based between Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt. He played 2 seasons for the Taita 2B side, first under the captaincy of Club Veteran and local legend, Paul McNelis and then under Miles Tait. During this stage, the batting mildly improved but against Naenae Old Boys in Early 2007, Andy captured a five-wicket haul of the Naenae top five batsman. Bowling 19 overs on the trot for final figures of 19 - 6 - 49 - 5. A pretty good effort all things considered.

After the 2007/08 season, the 2B side self-destructed in a heap as the youngsters either failed to pay their annual fees or decided to go and get drunk. In its place, Andy launched a Taita-TAB combo, picking up players from the New Zealand Racing Board head office in order to construct a behemoth of a one-day side. The team was entered in the Hutt Valley 1A league and at Christmas 2008 was sitting at the top of the table, one point clear of the team from Upper Hutt. Strangely enough, come the end of the season, the Taita-TAB Red team still sat atop the league, clear by a single point from Upper Hutt. The key match of the season came with an away win over Upper Hutt by three wickets.

Particularly close games were enjoyed against Upper Hutt, our Taita Black rivals and the Te Aroha team.

The games against Taita Black and Te Aroha went down to the final ball of the game. Against Taita Black, the heroes on the day were BJ Martin and Mathew Smith who managed to put on 40-odd for the 9th wicket in 5 overs to win the game with 2 runs on the final ball. Against Te Aroha, Andy went out to bat at #11 with 14 runs required from 16 balls. His batting partner for the challenge was Byron "The Baron" Mabbett. After a couple of quick singles, Andy played out a maiden over to leave Taita needing 8 off six balls to win. A wide, a couple of scampered singles and a heave over mid-wicket for 2 by Andy left the scores level. One run, one ball. Byron faced and the ball hit him in the general groin area. Andy ran through before Byron had even left the crease, however, there was still time as the opposition scrabbled to pick the ball out from between Byron's legs for the single to be completed.

Andy's personal statistics included 4 wickets; including a key wicket in the game against Upper Hutt and 13 runs for only one dismissal. Granted, there were only two innings in there, but they all count!
Date Opponent Result Margin
15 November Petone 2 Win 9 wickets
22 November Taita Black Win 2 wickets
29 November Hutt Gold Win 7 runs
6 December Stokes Valley 2 Win 37 runs
13 December Naenae 1 Win 9 wickets
20 December Upper Hutt Match Abandoned - rain n/a
10 January Wainuiomata Win 8 wickets
17 January Wainuiomata Stormers Win Default
24 January Naenae 2 Win 137 runs
31 January Te Aroha Win 1 wicket
7 February Stokes Valley 1 Win 6 wickets
14 February Eastbourne Win 3 wickets
21 February Hutt Eagles Match Abandoned - rain n/a
22 February Tokelau Hutt Valley Win Default
28 February Petone-Riverside 1 Match Abandoned - rain n/a
7 March Hutt Muppets Win Default
8 March Petone-Riverside 3 Loss 3 runs
13 March Upper Hutt Win 3 wickets
21 March Hutt Eagles Match Abandoned - rain n/a
28 March Petone-Riverside 1 Win Default

And, here's the table.

Teams Played Win Loss Draws Points
Taita VIC Cycles Red 20 15 1 4 107
Upper Hutt 20 14 2 3 106
Taita VIC Cycles Black 20 12 4 3 91
Hutt Districts Eagles 19 12 3 4 87
Petone-Riverside 2 20 10 5 4 80
Wainuiomata 20 10 7 3 72
Petone-Riverside 3 12 10 0 2 69
Te Aroha 19 9 6 4 68
Hutt Districts Gold 19 8 7 3 66
Hutt Districts Muppets 20 6 11 3 47
Naenae Old Boys 1 17 5 9 2 44
Naenae Old Boys 2 19 4 12 3 35
Eastbourne 14 4 7 3 34
Tokelau Hutt Valley 16 2 10 3 30
Stokes Valley 2 17 2 11 3 28
Wainuiomata Stormers 18 3 12 3 28
Stokes Valley 1 20 3 14 3 28
Petone-Riverside 1 17 3 11 3 27

So, how about a couple of photos?

Anyone fancy a Retail Level turnover budget? Taking some affirmative action.
A few pictures taken from our first game of the 2008/09 season against the Petone Riverside (2) team. This turned out to be a bit of a local derby as the Petone side were all staff of the Pak 'n' Save supermarket which is next door to the New Zealand Racing Board offices.

Top Left: Brijesh John sets himself up to either hit or leave the ball alone outside the off stumps.
Top Right: Toby Wilkes plays one away into the leg side. Toby finished the season as top run scorer with 452 runs at an average of 56.50.
Right: The Taita-TAB team circa 2008/09.
Back Row: Mike Rees, Toby Wilkes, Craig Twiname, Simon Thomas, Andy Newman (c), Darryl Taljaard, BJ Martin
Front Row: Mathew Smith, Byron Mabbett, Sam Kelly and Brijesh John

And below, some pictures from our end of season prizegiving.

Bottom Left: From the left, Craig Twiname, Darryl Taljaard, Mike Rees and Byron Mabbett.
Bottom Right: The end of season team photo taken in the Four Kings pub in Central Wellington.
Back Row: Craig Baker, Murray Munro, Mathew Smith, Mike Rees, Blair Nicholson
Middle Row (ish): Andy Newman (c), Toby Wilkes
Front Row: Byron Mabbett, Darryl Taljaard, Craig Twiname, Dave Sears, Andrew Swan and Kris Holyoake (obscured by Andrew Swan's arm) 		I found it, I found it and it was THIS big!!
Anyone fancy a Retail Level turnover budget? Taking some affirmative action.

See also: Domestic Cricket

and International Cricket

and Jenny Playing Cricket