CRICKET: Mother Nature causes confusion

2nd November 2009

You somehow get the feeling Mother Nature knows best.

It almost seems as if she put a damper on the previous two Saturdays' play to douse the hot bed of coals theatening to burst into flames in Hawke's Bay premier men's club two-day cricket.

It wasn't as glorious as yesterday but Saturday's weather offered playable conditions. The problem was a wet few days before did not offer Napier and Hastings city councils' ground staff the opportunity to prepare the pitches.

It didn't matter at "The Lords" at Cornwall Park because the hosts and Craft and Hern Sport Havelock North were happy to soldier on despite 3-4cm of grass growth on the pitch. Nelson Park, in Napier, again became the cauldron of contention.

At the crux of the matter was Napier council's decision about 1.30pm to close Nelson Park to all cricket so Hawke's Bay Cricket Association (HBCA) had no choice on Friday afternoon but to cancel the premier club matches between Napier Technical Old Boys (NTOB) versus Taradale and Napier Old Boys' Marist (NOBM) versus Central Hawke's Bay (CHB). Four other club matches were transferred to artificial pitches around the city and a memorandum to that effect was emailed to all parties concerned.

But a diligient HBCA chief executive officer Paul Anderson saw the sun poke its face through the clouds about 4pm so he rounded up council staff to make a case of playing and the game staff bought it and turned up at 7am on Saturday to prepare the strips.

However, somewhere along the way, late on Friday afternoon, the decision to reinstate the decision to play was lost in translation. An irate Taradale player/club captain, Michael Barbour told SportToday he did not get the message until 9.30am to 10am on Saturday from a player.

"We had heard Chinese whispers earlier on that the game was likely to be moved to Park Island," said Barbour, who didn't play on Saturday because of his Red Badge security commitments at the Cake Tin that night in the Air New Zealand Cup rugby semifinal in Wellington.

"I had no official email or anyone call me to say the game was on again. I did get one to say it was off so why not when it's on again?

"Why not just keep trying until you get someone?" he lamented, saying his cellphone was playing up at the weekend but there were other points of contact, such as his father, Brian, who is the chairman of the Dale club. "Apparently if we couldn't get eight players we would have had to forfeit the match.

"I want a meeting with Hawke's Bay Cricket tomorrow [today]."

In commending the council and pitch guru Phil Stoyanoff, Anderson said the NOBM started at midday while the Tech/Dale one got off at 1pm because the latter team didn't have enough players.

"[Taradale captain] James de Terte was gutted and I gave him the option of defaulting but he wasn't interested and was ringing around to get players," said Anderson of Dale who called on two fourth graders to muster nine players.

Anderson, who also umpired a match, said HBCA had contacted all the team captains.

"I'm not sure what more we can do. We seem to have grief from one club only and they seem to be out to cause as much problem as possible. Does that mean we should have called cricket off all together because of two hours?"

NOBM coach Brendon Bracewell saluted HBCA staff, saying their extra yard ensured prem players had a fantastic day.

"It's ridiculous that some clubs do not assist with the positiveness of playing because they are caught up in political crap all the time," said the former New Zealand international.

Anderson had done a great job in refusing to accept a council decision, Bracewell said, amid "whingeing" the previous weekend over delayed starts and "unplayable" conditions due to rain.

NOBM won the toss amassed 230-7 declared after 58 overs with No.7 bastman Daniel Swindells carving out 83 runs and No.6 Jono Devine making 49 and No.8 Jono Dunn adding 29.

CHB sheepfarmer James Hooper-Smith nailed four scalps after putting his shearers down to respond to a late SOS call from skipper James Mackie to play on Saturday morning.

"It wasn't ideal [to muster players after telling them the game was cancelled] but we were lucky most other guys didn't have other plans," Mackie said.

CHB than replied with 104-4 with opener Stephan Pimm unbeaten on 70 and Hooper-Smith with him on the crease this Saturday on 18.

Tech lost the toss and amassed 287-5 before declaring in the 61st over with Bronson Meehan (pictured) scoring 121 runs (13 fours and a six) while Morten Freer supported with 62 (seven fours/ two sixes). Dale bowler Craig Selby claimed two wickets.

Dale were 59-9 at stumps after 24.3 overs with Tech quickie Jeremy Kuru claiming three scalps.

At Cornwall Park, the hosts' were all out for 152 in 66 overs with skipper Jono Hall unbeaten on 34 while Jayden Waters (23 runs) and Brad Patton (21) ticking things over. Seb Logan took four wickets and Liam Cureton three.

In reply, CHB are 79-8 in 39 overs.

* Scoreboards - right.