30/03/2025
Today's Auckland Cricket Association Girls U13 Tui grand final was played by Howick Pakuranga Brave and Waitakere Cricket Club. Tui lined up against the unbeaten HPCC U13 Brave at the formidable home venue of Pakuranga’s Ti Rakau Park.
Howick Pakuranga boast to have over 800 boys and girls turn out in the various junior competitions each week and the Pakuranga MP Simeon Brown’s instrumental contributions to Auckland's transport Eastern Busway has transformed the clay-base (Kikuyu) Ti Rakau Park into a louchous green/brown bowling green. Winning the toss and with little due in the outfield, Tui chose to bowl.
Soon the Tui would find themselves wanting as the opening batters for the Brave found the middle of the bat and testing the conservative 35m boundaries. Tui would also soon discover the fiscal holes of a National finance minister Nicola Willis’s climate-friendly transport budget, with patchy turf-improvement and the late March drought creating chasms in the outfield.
Despite clinical field placements, supported by roaming coaches on the boundary and the Brood of experienced Rutherford College tournament expatriates, almost every ball cannoned into shins or the upper body and trickled past the boundary cones.
One by one, the Tui Matriarch came to the bowling crease and one by one would leave in tears. The best delivery of the day sailing over the long on boundary for six.
At the 10 over mark, HPCC Brave had mounted the highest half way total conceded by the Tui. Notable bowling in the first 10 from Evie Burton held the Brave to 97/1 at the half-innings break.
Enter Alice Shepherd. After relenting the gloves, Alice took the ball for the 14th, 18th and 20th overs. Ava Page-Wood taking up the gloves with only one over under her belt would also leave the field unscaled. Consistency and accuracy began to cost the Tui as the Brave strike batters felt ball on willow and finished up with 176.
Despite the daunting total, Tui felt the chase surprisingly achievable given the trueness of the pitch and speed of the outfield. The Brave had other ideas as the Tui lost wickets from consecutive full toss deliveries in the 2nd over. Alice would keep the Tui in the chase with an unbeaten 23 off 13 after coming to the crease at no.4. And despite going at 9’s and 10’s for much of the game, the Tui chase dissipated. 21 coming in the last over was not enough and the Brave supporters erupted into celebrations, winning by 19 runs.
Great first season of hard ball cricket, as a fellow coach I’m inspired by the passion and determination of these young ladies. What will the future hold, let's just wait and see.