From The CEO’s Chair - April 2017

Posted: Thursday, 20 April 2017

Newsletter from Chris Rapson Bay of Plenty Cricket Chief Executive

Just like the recent cyclones, the 2016/17 Bay of Plenty Cricket season has quickly disappeared, after a cricket year that will go down on record for amazing success on and off the field.

The jewel in the crown on the field of play, was the Bay of Plenty Senior Men’s team that won back to back (Northern Districts) Fergus Hickey Rosebowls and successfully defended the (NZ Cricket) Hawke Cup during four action-packed Direct Challenges, at the Bay Oval.

The second half of the representative season, seemed like a week by week blur of rep cricket, with the Bay First XI preparing for seven successive weeks of minor association cricket. During the six games (v Waikato Valley was washed out) that were played, starting with the Hawke Cup encounter with Counties Manukau and ending against Southland - the Bay side blasted an amazing 2565 runs with a myriad of Bay of Plenty all-time records being obliterated on the way.

The Bay of Plenty Cricket pathway that kicked off when David Johnson was appointed Coachforce Cricket Development Officer over a decade and half ago, paid dividends in spades in the recently completed season.

The Bay of Plenty Development team won the Basil McBurney Trophy for the first time for several years, with the Coastland Senior and Junior Secondary sides, winning their respective ND age group tournaments.

Tauranga Boys College won through to the National First XI Cup Finals in term four by way of winning the ND First XI Cup competition. Aquinas College also played in the ND finals tournament, by way of winning the regional T20 competition. Two other Western Bay of Plenty teams qualified for NZ Cricket Schools Finals, with Tauranga Girls College winning the ND Secondary Schoolgirls tournament and Tauranga Intermediate boys’ team annexing the ND NZ Post Cup competition.

Bay of Plenty Cricket Women’s Development Officer Rebecca Yee, received the NZC Community Cricket Best Female Engagement Strategy Award, at the New Zealand Cricket Awards night during March 2017. The Community Cricket Best Female Engagement Strategy recognizes an approach that encourages females to participate in cricket, provide opportunities for participants to improve their skills and leads into further female cricket opportunities.

GoGirl is a girl’s only cricket program launched in January 2013 by Northern Districts Cricket, through the auspices of NZ Cricket and is a partnership with Sport NZ Kiwisport Program. The GoGirl program is aimed at Year 5 & 6 girls, to draw the youngsters to the game by way of a standalone girl’s introduction program.

The Bay of Plenty GoGirl program is delivered by BOPCA Women’s Cricket Development Officer Rebecca Yee. The GoGirl program sees Rebecca delivering six lessons at each of the registered schools, covering the basics of batting, bowling and fielding. In addition to Rebecca’s hands on approach, she has been instrumental in organizing the hugely successful Rainbow World Cup and other Bay of Plenty girls cricket festivals during the season.

Another to be honoured, was a tireless worker for Te Puke and Western Bay of Plenty junior cricket, at the Northern Districts Cricket Awards. Barry Roderick was given the Alan McBride Services to Junior Cricket Award for over thirty years service to the game in the Te Puke region.

There are many individuals around our cricket family in the Bay who give their time freely to assist develop our young cricketers and it is great to see their contributions acknowledged by Northern Districts’. Our game would be very much poorer if we did not have the support of our many hundreds of volunteers in the Bay and so on behalf of all those who benefit from your efforts a huge thank you goes out to you all.

While the very successful BOPCA Awards night at the Mount Maunganui Golf Club wrapped up what was a hugely successful season, our focus at BOPCA headquarters at the Bay Oval now shifts to planning and preparation for the 2017/18 season.

Our aim is to continue to develop the local cricket environment and provide programmes that will ensure we have a growing pool of rising cricket talent in the Bay who really enjoy their cricket at every level.

With thanks to our sponsors for the 2016/2017 season:

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