January And March BOPCA Player Of The Month Awards To Be Presented At Bay Prizegiving

Posted: Tuesday, 3 April 2018

Player of the Month

Three Bay of Plenty Baywide premier players will be presented with the BOPCA Player of the Month Awards, for January and March 2018, at the Bay of Plenty Cricket prize-giving to be held 4 April 2018.

Bay of Plenty Cricket introduced the BOPCA Player of the Month Award in 2006. The purpose of the award is to recognise excellence in Bay of Plenty Cricket during each month of the playing season.

Otumoetai Cadets new recruit Joshua Bates, took little time to show his new club-mates his ability with the willow weapon in the first Williams Cup (Baywide Premier) game of the season, on the 27th January 2018.

Batting first against Greerton, the former Christchurch player launched an attack that culminated in 103 runs being credited to Bates in the competition score-book. The whirlwind attack on the Greerton bowlers, contained ten 4’s and six mighty shots over the boundary ropes.

Te Puke master blaster Tai Bridgman-Raison took his tally of centuries to thirteen, for the Te Puke Cricket Club, when his team defeated Lake Taupo CC on the 3rd March 2018. Te Puke posted 267 for the loss of seven wickets, with Bridgman-Raison belting 146 at a tad under a run a ball, in an innings that contained 22 boundaries.

Tai Bridgman-Raison 13th century, equaled Otumoetai Cadets batsman’s Llorne Howell's, Baywide Premier Club cricket record of three figure scores set a decade ago.

Jono Boult has performed many exceptional feats with bat and ball, in representative and club cricket, over the last decade and a half. During March, the Cadets skipper took his side the Williams Cup title decider with two match winning bowling performances.

After Cadets posted 249/6 against long-time rivals Mount Maunganui, the Cadets captain weaved magic with the ball, to grab six wickets at a cost of just 16 runs as the Mount were bundled out for 110. Eight days later, Jono took Cadets to the Williams Cup final stanza, when he took another six wicket haul for 22 runs, as Central Indians were removed for just 72 in post section play.

While the just completed Bay of Plenty cricket year has been punctuated by wet weather for much of the season, the arrival of Autumn brought a surfeit of match-winning performances during March.

Three highly commended performances showed the future of cricket in the Bay of Plenty is in good hands. Bay of Plenty representative batsman Stephen Crossan, hit his maiden minor association century against Waikato Valley, in the last Fergus Hickey Rosebowl game of the season.

Tauranga Boys College First XI batsman Taylor Bettelheim posted the most runs (215) at the recent ND First XI Cup Finals week, in four turns at bat, which included two centuries. Tauranga Intermediate batsmen Utsav Kumar (95no) and Luke Spargo (90) took their team a ten wicket victory, in the final of the BOPCA National Primary Cup final.

BOPCA Player of the Month Awards 2017/18

January: Joshua Bates (Otumoetai Cadets)

February: Not Awarded

March: Jono Boult (Otumoetai Cadets) & Tai Bridgman-Raison (Te Puke)

December: Joe Carter (Bay of Plenty Senior Men’s Representative Team)

November: Dominic Crombie (Bay of Plenty Development Team)

October: Not Awarded

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