Defending co-champions New Plymouth Girls High School extended their reign at the top of girls secondary schools cricket today [Thursday 18 December] with a record sixth consecutive finals win.
In cool blustery conditions in Taupo, Epsom Girls Grammar won the toss in the championship playoff and asked New Plymouth to bat. After the loss of an early wicket New Plymouth adopted a cautious approach against the tight bowling of Epsom and at 20 overs had reached a sound 50/1. The drinks break seemed to flick the switch on the scoring rate as New Plymouth up the pace. Kate Broadmore again anchored the batting by batting through the innings. Partnerships with Maree Heal and Brooke Sim saw them amass a very useful 175/4 after their allotted 40 overs.
Epsom were under immediate pressure and none of their batsmen was able to get on top of the accurate New Plymouth attack. They were finally dismissed for 71 in the 37th over. Wickets for New Plymouth were shared between Victoria Hill, Brooke Sim, Kate Baxter and Maree Heal. This victory gave New Plymouth their 6th consecutive title in the NZCT Girls’ Cup – an outstanding achievement.
In their playoff for 3rd and 4th against Burnside High School, Baradene College were asked to bat first and reached 67 in the 31st over thanks to an 8th wicket stand of 48 between Alisha Lovrich and Jade Whitley. At 7/17 in the 11th over they had been in dire straits before these two put up their resistance. For Burnside Jessica Hastings was outstanding with her medium pacers returning the amazing figures of 6/10. She was well supported by Frances Mackay who took 2/7.
Burnside lost just 3 wickets in reaching this target with Frances Mackay and Lucy Foote both being not out in their twenties when they reached the required total.
The playoff for 5th and 6th saw Havelock North High School win the toss and put Waikato Diocesan in to bat. Waikato struggled to get on top of the Havelock bowlers, the best of whom were Olivia Gregory and Sanika Rangnekar who both captured four wickets and Sally Hensman grabbed the other two. Only Katie Hodge reached twenty for Waikato.
In reply Havelock North scored the required runs in the 30th over for the loss of three wickets with Olivia Gregory being 20 not out. Katie Hodge was also the best of the Waikato bowlers taking 2/27.
Wellington Girls College won the toss in their 7th and 8th place playoff, and like all the other teams put their opponents, St Hilda’s Collegiate into bat. St Hilda’s enjoyed the conditions and scored their highest total of the finals reaching 133 with opener Brittney Haugh 39 and Emma Spratt 27 being their top scorers. Stephanie Bremner and N Patel both finished with three wickets.
Wellington lost six wickets but attained the required target with Samantha Morris and Wheturangi Charteris both scoring 30s. Amy Rapley and captain Philippa Cashmere were the pick of the St Hilda’s bowlers.
The final placings for the 2008 NZCT Girls’ Cup were:
1st New Plymouth Girls’ High School
2nd Epsom Girls’ Grammar School
3rd Burnside High School
4th Baradene College
5th Havelock North High School
6th Waikato Diocesan School
7th Wellington Girls’ College
8th St Hilda’s Collegiate School
From performances during the NZCT national finals tournament a player of the tournament was selected from each team. These were:
Epsom Girls Grammar - School Lucille Matthews
Baradene College - Alexandra Hurley
Waikato Diocesan School - Hannah Beatson
New Plymouth Girls’ High School - Kate Broadmore
Havelock North High School - Olivia Gregory
Welington Girls’ College - Rachel Chin
Burnside High School - Frances Mackay
St Hilda’s Collegiate School - Emma Spratt
The overall player of the tournament for her outstanding performances with both the bat and ball was Kate Broadmore, New Plymouth Girls’ High School who received the Ina Lamason Cup.
