NPOB Claim Triple Crown

Three from three as Old Boys sweep Expert Turf premier grade cricket.

New Plymouth Old Boys’ Cricket Club have claimed the triple crown of Taranaki cricket with their victory in the Expert Turf premier three-day final on Sunday.
The 109-run first innings win over Nag N’ Noggin New Plymouth & Marist United means not only have the club claimed a three-peat of premier trophies for the season, having beaten Marist in the T20, 50-over and two-day formats, but they have wiped way memories of the season before, reversing the results when they had lost all three finals to their cross-town rivals.
Overnight rain at Pukekura Park on Saturday night had briefly threatened their championship run – a washed out final day would have meant no result and seen Marist lift the trophy as top qualifiers.

But once the overnight drizzle cleared and the ground dried, umpires Brendan Keighley and Chris Judson got day three underway at 1.45pm, with Merit RV Old Boys needing just two final wickets to take the first innings points and the title, in a game they had controlled nicely from the outset.
While the Marist tailenders, led by Michael Blanks, put up a stubborn resistance on the final day, in the end the task of holding out for almost 5 hours or chasing down the 182 runs left needed to win proved too much.

In the end, it was the effort of Old Boys’ bowlers on the afternoon and into the evening of day two that paved the way for their win.
Having been sent into bat on Friday, NPOB had patiently compiled a total of 277-8d on the back of half centuries to Josh Borrell (58), Davis Mills (73) and good contributions from Oli Burbidge (44) and Ben Frewin (49no).

Spinner Blanks was outstanding in picking up seven wickets for Marist, but Old Boys batted with discipline and focus to continue accumulating runs into the first session of day two.
And any Old Boys fans who had feared that they had batted too long, particularly with rain looming on Saturday night, quickly had their fears eased. Frewin bowled dangerman Dean Robinson in the first over of the innings as he and Jarrod Ritson ripped through the Marist top order, leaving the defending champions languishing at one stage at 58-7.
Robbie Yule (25) was the only player in the Marist top order to reach double figures.

But one of the features of the Marist side this season has been their ability to bat deep, as their tailenders survived against the odds on Saturday evening and into the final day.
Blanks in particular was a standout, surviving 255-balls for a gutsy unbeaten 58 and he was well supported by Daniel Bernet (16) on the evening of day two and Robson Chapman (18) on the final day. Chapman and Blanks shared a 51- run partnership that almost had Marist daring to believe, before Viranchi Uphadhyay stepped up and took the two final wickets before the tea break to dismiss Marist for 168 and seal the victory.