REPORT
COTTER CENTURY HEADLINES STRONG RESULTS - 15 MARCH 2025
Jacob Cotter’s unbeaten century for the Premier Men proved enough to overcome a dogged fightback from the St Albans batsmen on the second day of their match at the Nursery Ground. The side now goes into the last round of the 2-Day competition with a chance to finish second. The Premier Women also had a convincing seven-wicket victory over Lancaster Park thanks to another Beth Dodd half-century and 28 from Julia Manton.
The only real disappointment of the day was the Championship side that fought hard but just failed to capture the final two St Albans wickets required to take badly needed outright points on Hagley 5. Division 1 wasn’t well placed after the first day against Marist and was well beaten on the second.
The afternoon grades had a great day, with only the Masters Cardinals failing to get over the line in a high-scoring match against OBC on Elmwood 2. Niranjan Mani’s 56 was a key innings in a middle-order recovery that got the Div 5 Tamil’s over the line in a tight match against Marist Harewood, and Jacob Koster with 39 and 4-6 was an important all-round performance in the Div 5 All-Stars win. Tim Suddaby’s unbeaten 68 and Jinto Mathew’s 28* featured in the Hospital’s win on Lancaster Park. The Cavalier Cardinal victory also now sees them play off for the competition title on the season’s final day.
Results were a little harder to find in the youth section this week, with the only win going to the Year 10 lads and the 1st XI falling just short in their run chase against the Christ’s College 2nd XI. In a losing effort, Youth 3rd XI batsman Sam Wild followed up an unbeaten 82 in his last innings with another unbeaten 71 in his side’s loss on Saturday to NYYCC.
Some of the photos in this publication are also courtesy of Ash Hart’s Hartland Images.
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Sydenham started the 2nd day of their match against St Albans in a strong position, 87 runs ahead on the 1st innings with two Saints 2nd innings wickets already gone for just 14. With usual wicketkeeper Aarush Bhagwat unavailable due to an injury sustained in the mid-week Canterbury A match, Michael Robertson took over the gloves and had immediate reward when he caught the remaining opener Cochran standing up to Tom Agnew in the first over of the morning.
Jacob Cotter
At 14-3 and still 73 behind, St Albans had a major task to remain in the match from there, but the fact that the match lasted until the penultimate over of the day was a great credit to their batting from there. Saint’s Paltridge and Brown initiated the recovery with a 130-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Sydenham wasn’t bowling well and struggled for a breakthrough, but when Mitch Gardner finally dismissed Brown, the pressure returned to the St Albans batsmen. Flavell fought well, but when Archie Goodrick affected his dismissal, a flurry of wickets from Archie and Tom seemed to dispel Sydenham concerns. When Mitch Gardner took the next wicket, at 192-9, St Albans were only 105 runs ahead with plenty of time available in the match, it looked destined for an early finish.
However, the last St Albans pair, Souness and McKerrow, had other ideas and did a sterling job for their team. They spent the next 14 overs frustrating the Sydenham bowlers, who were clearly tiring in the heat and put on 70 for the 10th wicket. Eventually, Sydenham’s increasing anxiety was relieved when Dylan McArdle broke that stand when he caught and bowled McKerrow, with Saints finishing all out for 262. Mitch was the best of the bowlers with 4-54 off 19 overs, supported by Archie with 3-56 from 12, Tom with 76-2 from 20 and Dylan with that vital last wicket in his 1-46 from 9.The Saints batsmen had done a great job, and the target of 176 off 36 overs, close to 5’s, had almost got them into declaration territory. The chase would require a good start, and it indeed came from the two Sydenham openers, with Jacob Cotter and Akshan Gulati putting on 64 for the 1st wicket at over 5’s.Although then losing Akshan, closely followed by Michael Robinson, Ryan Wallace and Dylan McArdle, Jacob was again looking well in charge – but at 108-4 into the 23rd over, he needed a partnership. That initially came from Nathaneal Paltridge with 16 off 20 balls to take the score to 128-5, and then an important cameo of 17 off 27 balls from Cullen Crowe had the side within spitting distance of the total at 163-6.
Eventually, Jacob and Tom Agnew took them to the win with an over to spare at 178-6, Jacob batting through the innings and remaining unbeaten on 110 off 107 balls. After top scoring in both innings in the previous round against Heathcote, Jacob surely knows how to make a great early impression on a new club and competition. He is an exciting prospect with an abundance of talent already and an 18-year-old who will only get better over the next few years as he develops further.Although Burnside West University would seem to have the 2-Day competition title now well in the bag, the weekend’s results leave Sydenham and Lancaster Park both in contention for second place. Both are set to play each other in the last round starting Saturday at Sydenham Park.Special thanks to umpire David Henderson, who had to stand alone in the match in 27-degree heat
Full scoreboard & video highlights: https://live.nvplay.com/play/?tab=m_summary#m6fc22629-27b8-45db-acff-f310006957d3
The Birdwood Premier Women
Our premier women had a convincing win over Lancaster Park to set up an exciting final round of match play next Saturday. The win positions Sydenham at the top of the table, 2 points ahead of North West and 1 point ahead of OBC, with each team looking for a win to secure a final spot.The premier women had to wait to start their match due to wet outfield. Reduced to 43 overs, Sydenham took to the field. Following up on last week, Sydenham again bowled very economically with all bowlers going at under 3 an over and obtained early wickets. Molly Loe picked up 2 wickets in her opening spell, finishing with 3/22 from her 8 overs. The change brought on Rachel Davidson who had another brilliant match, picking up 3 for 12 from her 9 overs. Zoe Ellerton-Kelly came on late in the piece to clean up the tail with 2 for 3 off her 1.4 overs.
Lizzy Cohr
In response, Sydenham got off to a strong start with the bat, scoring 55 runs off their first 10 overs. However, they lost two quick wickets, which briefly slowed their momentum. Felicity Robertson anchored the innings superbly, scoring an unbeaten 105 runs.
Felicity Robertson
The pitch and outfield at Hagley Oval were in excellent condition, and Robertson made the most of it. Her knock included 16 boundaries, and she played a crucial role in guiding Sydenham toward their target.
Kate Craig
Kate Craig also played a vital supporting role, scoring 38 not out. Robertson’s composed century and Craig’s steady support led Sydenham to a well-deserved victory, as they chased down OBC’s total with plenty of wickets and overs to spare.
Thanks to umpires Brent Littmoden and Andrew Moulton
Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/cmca-adult-summer-202425/ev-power-premier-women/game-centre/e8503890
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Match report courtesy of Matt Bell
The last day of the season for the champs was a simple equation… win outright and secure a place in the grade for next season. The main threat coming from Halswell would always be the batting of Hardeep Singh and Halswell’s stubbornness in wanting to bat out the day. There were two changes to the side from last Saturday, with Cullen Crowe coming into the side to replace the injured Matt Bell and Zack Howe replacing the promoted Shevon Perera to the Premier Team.
The plan was for Carl Hooper and Dylan McArdle to take the new ball and bowl a full length to attack the stumps more to bring in the LBW, considering we had umpires for the match. Both the opening bowlers did a great job hitting good consistent areas and were rewarded with a wicket each. That set the scene for Benji Bell, the chief destroyer of the Halswell batting in the first innings, to come in at first change from the pavilion end after Carl Hooper and Josh Wedlake followed Dylan McArdle.
Benji Bell
The key moment in the game in Benji’s first over was when he found the edge of the bat from a Hardeep drive that was expertly caught at First slip by Dylan McArdle. It was a game-changing moment as Halswell were now 3-24 and still 88 runs from making Sydenham bat again. On an unresponsive wicket for the pace bowlers, Josh Wedlake worked hard for his spell without any reward and was replaced by Cullen Crowe. The spinners of Benji and Cullen settled into their work and bowled in tandem for the remainder of the morning session, and they were beating the bat and creating chances every over and, at the lunch break, had picked up two more wickets between them to have Halswell 5-43 at Lunch.
Carl Hooper finds an edge – out
After lunch, Zack Howe came into the attack to provide a different option and give Cullen a break while Benji’s leg-spin continued from the pavilion end. Zack secured an early breakthrough after lunch, and it was clear that the outright result was always going to happen. However, the team was mainly focused on collecting the four extra bonus points on offer for the inning’s outright victory, given the tight nature of the points table.
Thisum Lawrence was being defiant for Halswell and doing his best Rahul Dravid impression with a brick wall defence. Benji finally dismissed Thisum for six runs off 135 balls, and the wheels fell off the Halswell bus in the end. Halswell continued to try and dead bat everything to the very end, but with players all around the bat on a turning wicket, our spinners were too good for them and picked up the final three wickets quickly after drinks. The star of the match was undoubtedly Benji Bell, who, apart from the five overs from Carl Hooper, bowled continuously from the pavilion end for the rest of the day and picked up 6 wickets for 25, finishing the match with 12 wickets for 74 runs to go with his quick-fire 31 off 14 balls.
It was a fantastic effort by the team to be patient all day long, as Halswell were all out for 87 off 63 overs. The boys shared a celebratory drink in the sheds and blew the roof off the Halswell changing room with the team song. It has been a great past 8 weeks for the team, winning every Saturday, and it showed that when they can put out a consistent team, they not only deserve to be in this grade but should be title contenders for next season.
In the end, Sydenham finished 2nd in the 2-Day competition and mid-table across the three formats table.
Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/summer-202425/mens-championship/game-centre/b4c8b55a
