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BOP Senior Men Hawke Cup Challenge 11th - 13th March

Bay Of Plenty To Challenge Hawkes Bay For The Hawke Cup

Bay of Plenty are primed for their Hawke Cup Direct Challenge next weekend (11/13 March 2016) and will play Hawkes Bay in the last 2016 Hawke Cup Challenge of the season. 

The 2016 Hawke Cup has been a roller coaster ride, with Buller taking the NZ Cricket Minor Association big prize from 2015 holders Canterbury Country, before losing it to North Otago. Last weekend (26/28 February 2016) Hawkes Bay defeated North Otago in Oamaru, to set up the Bay of Plenty Direct Challenge. 

The Hawke Cup, which is the symbol of Minor Association cricket superiority in New Zealand, was presented by Lord Hawke in 1910 and is amongst the oldest cricket trophies still contested in the country. 

Bay of Plenty’s very first of representative match, was a Hawke Cup Direct Challenge against South Auckland, in Hamilton in 1932. In the intervening years, Bay of Plenty has played in another 26 Hawke Cup Direct Challenges, winning and defending the long-time trophy on eleven occasions.

In their first turn of defending the Hawke Cup, that they took from Hawkes Bay in 1986 - the Bay of Plenty side experienced plenty of highs and lows in the first three months of 1987. After a successful defence of the old-time prize against Horowhenua, they lost to Hawkes Bay. By a quirk of the challenge format, Bay of Plenty returned to Hawkes Bay some two weeks later to claim back the Hawke Cup, before losing the prestigious trophy to Southland in the last challenge of the season.

A decade later, saw Bay of Plenty again holding the Hawke Cup, after beating Auckland/Manukau in March 1997.Two weeks later one of the best Bay of Plenty batting performances took place at Blake Park Mount Maunganui, when Central Otago made the long journey north. The match, in which Graeme Aldridge made his Bay of Plenty debut, produced a number of highlights. Bay of Plenty simply batted the visitors out of the match on Day One. The fall of wickets (33, 33, 50, 123, 304, 369, 398, 486, 513) tells the story of a circumspect start followed by total domination. With the score at 50/3, Simon Winter strode to the wicket to blaze his way into Bay of Plenty Cricket history. His 181 runs was the then highest total ever recorded by a Bay of Plenty batsman. 

Bay of Plenty’s third run of winning and defending the big prize, started in a record breaking epic encounter against Hamilton in 2013. While Hamilton made a good start being 103/1 the Bay of Plenty bowlers worked hard to remove the defending champions for 255. Tony Goodin took four wickets with Brett Hampton returning 3/53.

Entering day two at 24/0, few could have imagined the vice like grip that the Bay team would take on the match. Bay of Plenty batted for the next two days of the encounter, with Hamilton waving the white flag of surrender when the Bay were dismissed for 701 in mid afternoon of the final day.

While Bay Cricket historians will trumpet the feats of Brett Hampton (194) and Joe Carter (187) the side batted right down the order. Bharat Popli experienced every batsman’s nightmare being removed for 99, with Mitch McCann producing a fighting knock of 69.

Bay of Plenty then went on to defend the Hawke Cup against Manawatu, Canterbury Country and South Canterbury in the remaining 2013 challenges. A further successful defence against Hamilton in January 2014, was followed by Manawatu relieving Bay of Plenty of the Hawke Cup two weeks later. 

A myriad of individual and team milestones, have been posted in the 27 Bay of Plenty Hawke Cup Direct Challenges matches since 1932. Derek Beard has the most Bay of Plenty Hawke Cup appearances with 13 games, while fellow Bay of Plenty Cricket legend Mike Wright played in 10 Hawke Cup challenges.

Most runs belongs to Derek Beard (549) with Brett Hampton having posted the highest score of 194, in the epic encounter against Hamilton in 2013. The all-time most wickets tally belongs to Tony Goodin with 34 Hawke Cup bowling scalps, with Derek Beard (21) and former Glamorgan coach John Derrick (17) also taking plenty of Hawke Cup wickets. Tony Goodin is the only Bay of Plenty bowler to take ten wickets in a match, achieving the feat against South Canterbury, with match figures of 7/42 and 5/91. 

BAY OF PLENTY HAWKE CUP STATISTICS

Matches (1932-2014) - 27
Wins - 11
1986        defeated Hawkes Bay
1986        defeated Central Otago (defence)
1987        defeated Horowhenua (defence)
1987        defeated Hawkes Bay
1997        defeated Auckland/Manukau
1997        defeated Central Otago (defence)
2013        defeated Hamilton
2013        defeated Manawatu (defence)
2013        defeated Canterbury Country (defence)
2013        defeated South Canterbury (defence)
2014        defeated Hamilton (defence)

Losses     - 16

Bay of Plenty Teams to Win the Hawke Cup
v Hawkes Bay 16/18 March 1986
MJE Wright, DA Beard, DJ White, BR Blair, ADG Roberts, CA Webb, RR Bradley, SJ Scott, BL Cairns, BS Ward, MR McKinnon.

v Hawkes Bay 14/16 March 1987
DA Beard, MJE Wright, DJ White, GW McKenzie, MP Maynard, ADG Roberts, RR Bradley, BP Ward, F Lellman, MR McKinnon, BN McIntosh.

v Auckland Manukau 1/3 March 1997
BG Wakefield, GJ Taylor, GM Donne, MJ Tesar, JR Gibson, NP Howard, NJR Aldridge, MN Hart, GD Manners, RG Hart, DA Beard, PMI Wills.

v Hamilton 25/27 January 2013
RPO Drysdale, JF Carter, B Popli, MD McCann, BRW Williams, S Steward, BR Hampton, AJ Oakley, SB Davey, DL Swan, TC Goodin.

Most Appearances
13    DA Beard     (1982-86-87-91-94-97-98)
10    MJE Wright  (1969-72-76-86-87-91)
7    ADG Roberts  (1982-86-87)

Most Runs
549    DA Beard         HS 135
512    BR Hampton    HS 194
395    MJE Wright      HS 87
381    ADG Roberts    HS 117
414    JF Carter          HS 187

Most Wickets
34    TG Goodin         BB 7/42
21    DA Beard           BB 6/48
17    J Derrick            BB (4/87 & 4/60 v Hawkes Bay Feb 1987)
16    BR Hampton      BB 3/33
12    BL Cairns          BB 4/33

Centuries
194    BR Hampton        v     Hamilton                    2013
187    JF Carter             v     Hamilton                    2013
181    SL Winter            v     Central Otago             1997
135    DA Beard            v     Hawkes Bay               1987
117    ADG Roberts       v     Hawkes Bay              1986
115    GW McKenzie     v     Manawatu                  1994
103    BR Hampton       v     Hamilton                     2014
100    B Popli               v    Canterbury Country       2013

Ten Wickets in a Match (or better)
7/42 & 5/91   TG Goodin    v South Canterbury        2013

Six Wickets (or better)
7/42    TG Goodin       v South Canterbury        2013
6/48    LR Spring        v Manawatu                  1940
6/48    DA Beard        v Auckland/Manukau     1997
6/65    DJ White         v Hawkes Bay              1987
6/92    RS Cunis        v Southland                  1976