With the Central Stags out of The Ford Trophy Finals, Hawke Cup holder Hawke's Bay has named a robust squad as they look to defend the Hawke Cup for a third time on the bounce over the coming three days - but they'll need to shut out their biggest rival of recent years.
The 2023/24 summer of provincial cricket began with a Challenge Match between Hawke's Bay and Canterbury Country, and the same two teams met at the start of the 2022/23 season as well.
A brief recap: Canterbury Country held the Hawke Cup from early 2020 (when they uplifted it from Hamilton, then locked it away for the 2020 winter against Otago Country) until the first challenge of the following season, when Nelson took the cup away from their Rangiora home.
North Otago then beat Nelson, only to lose it to Hawke's Bay in 2021. Hawke's Bay then saw off challenges from Hamilton (2021), Manawatū (2022) and Bay of Plenty (2022) over a COVID-19-reshuffled period, before losing it to a strong Canterbury Country outfit at the start of the 2022/23 season (in a match rescheduled from the previous truncated summer).
Canterbury Country kept the historic piece of silver at Mainpower Oval for the rest of 2022/23 - seeing off Southland, Nelson and Otago Country in a new record tenure for their own Association.
Cyclone Gabrielle prevented Hawke's Bay from making the Zone 2 Challenge that season, so that clash was rescheduled as well - leading to Hawke's Bay storming the fortress, a raid on Rangiora at the start of this summer to reclaim the Cup.
Now, the two dominant sides - arguably the strongest District Associations from the North and South Islands respectively - are heading into a classic rematch at Napier's Nelson Park.
Hawke's Bay has so far defended the Cup against Manawatū (Zone 2) and Manukau (Zone 1) this year and is looking to keep its trophy cabinet full to the brim. The Hawke Cup not only currently resides in Napier, but CD's Furlong Cup, Chapple Cup, and the Mike Shrimpton Trophy as well after a near-perfect summer for both its men's and women's Senior representative teams.
Will Clark and Liam Dudding, two of the Stags in the Hawke's Bay line-up | MBUTCHER
With the Central Stags having missed this weekend's business end of The Ford Trophy, the timing couldn’t be better for the Bay. They have Brad Schmulian fresh off two Ford Trophy centuries in his last three games, as well as Jayden Lennox, Will Clark, Bayley Wiggins and Liam Dudding back from the Stags squad, as well as capped Stags Angus Schaw - who will captain, Jack Boyle, Ben Stoyanoff and Brett Johnson. Liam McCarthy, Dominic Thompson and Baylee Foote make up the balance of the squad named for the defence that starts today at Nelson Park.
Canterbury Country has named two capped Canterbury players in Harry Chamberlain and Rhys Mariu as well as Yorkshire first-class rep George Hill and recent NZ U19 World Cup representative Robbie Foulkes, while Canterbury contests The Ford Trophy this Saturday.
The free admission match begins at 10.30am with the toss as 10am and livescoring as usual at www.nzc.nz and on the NZC app.
2023/24 Zone 3 Challenge Match
Hawke's Bay (Holder) v Canterbury Country (Challenger)
Nelson Park, Napier
Friday 23 to Sunday 25 February 2024
Livescoring: www.nzc.nz
HOLDER: Hawke's Bay • Hawke Cup squad
Angus Schaw (c), Jack Boyle, Will Clark, Liam Dudding, Bayley Foote, Brett Johnson, Jayden Lennox, Liam McCarthy, Brad Schmulian, Ben Stoyanoff, Dominic Thompson, Bayley Wiggins
CHALLENGER: Canterbury Country • Hawke Cup squad
Sam Chamberlain (c), Jesse Frew, Rhys Mariu, Archie Redfern, George Hill (Yorkshire - uncapped for Canterbury Country), Harry Chamberlain, Robbie Foulkes, George Gunn, Callum Cameron, MacKenzie Smith, Will Hamilton, Brayden Hill.
