JONATHAN CAMERON
Woodleigh's Hayden Whiting was in blistering form on Saturday.
Woodleigh's Hayden Whiting didn't bother running many singles in Taranaki premier grade cricket on Saturday.
Instead, the No6 batsman blasted the ball to the boundary and over it on his way to his highest score in New Zealand – 182.
His innings included 14 fours and 10 sixes against New Plymouth Old Boys at Western Park and was only seven runs short of his highest tally of the 189 not out he scored while playing cricket in Wales in 2005.
"I got a few out of the middle, it was pretty good," he said yesterday. "It was one of those days. They had all the fielders on the boundary, so I had to hit over them. It's a small ground."
Whiting's previous best score in Taranaki club cricket was 152 in last year's semifinal against New Plymouth Marist United and came on the back of a century in a Twenty20 round-robin match against Hawera United a couple of weeks ago.
Whiting's chanceless innings provided the bulk of the runs in Woodleigh's first innings total of 293, his wicket the last to fall when he was bowled by David Loake.
Old Boys lost a couple of early wickets but recovered to be 149-2 at stumps with Kane Robertson 55 not out and Kent Jordan 48 not out.
Former Zimbabwe cricketer Douglas Hondo made an immediate impact for Hawera United with bat and ball in the Taranaki premier grade on Saturday.
The medium pacer ripped through the Francis Douglas Memorial College batting lineup to bag seven wickets for 18 runs as the school side were rolled for 92 batting first at Hawera.
Hondo then hit 51 with the bat as Hawera raced through to 163-8 before declaring.
He was back in the action immediately snapping up three quick wickets with the school side reeling at 3-2. At stumps, they had staged a mini comeback making it through to 31-4. Hondo finished the day with figures of 3-5 in the second innings and outstanding match figures of 10-23.
There were fireworks of another kind in the match between New Plymouth Boys' High School and New Plymouth Marist United at Lynmouth Park.
Things got a little heated when Marist pace bowler Leith Johnston was called for six no balls in four overs and a few of his team-mates fired up at the two schoolboys who were umpiring.
"The boys got a bit heated and let their thoughts be known. They probably went a little overboard. I called the guys aside and quietened them down," Johnston said afterwards.
"Things were quite fiery for about five minutes."
In the remaining game at Inglewood, the home side not only picked up first innings points against Stratford but also set themselves up for an outright win.Boys' High, thanks to a long and patient innings of 57 off 150 balls from opener Mason Farrant, scored 182 batting first, with the game evenly balanced with United 53-3 at stumps.
Batting first, Inglewood made 227 with solid contributions of 71 from Aaron Zame and 55 from Hayden McIntyre. Jason Dombroski (5-36) and McIntyre (3-14) were key players as Stratford were dismissed for 112.
Forced to follow on, more misery was in store for Stratford with two wickets falling in their second innings with the addition of only two runs. Stratford need 114 runs next Saturday to make Inglewood bat again.
Article Supplied by Taranaki Daily News; www.taranakidailynews.co.nz