Valley into national champs

Jimmy Neesham
Jimmy Neesham
Taieri came up short in the knockout final at Brooklands on Sunday and it is North East Valley that will head to the national club championships at the end of the season.

North Easy Valley was too slick and had too much class for Taieri which had done well to make the final, having beaten Green Island and Albion in earlier stages.

North East Valley boasted Volts players Derek de Boorder, Jimmy Neesham and Michael Rae.

Otago Volts captain Rob Nicol is a member of the Taieri club but is struggling with the webbing on one hand and did not play.

Pace bowler Warren Barnes has a back injury and also did not make an appearance although Volts pace bowler Jack Hunter did play for Taieri.

Taieri batted first but lost wickets early. Its middle order of Hunter, Beckham Greenall and Jarrod Casey all reached the 30s but none of them could go on to make a decent score.

The side ended up being all out for 149 after 37 overs.

Rae picked up two wickets for Valley as did Declan Su'a.

North East Valley did not muck around when batting and reached the target in the 29th over.

It had Neesham to thank for the quick run chase.

He came to the wicket with his team at 27 for two wickets.

Fresh off hitting 69 for Otago in a Ford Trophy match on Saturday, Neesham hit 71 off 54 balls, taking the game away from Taieri.

He hit nine fours and also three sixes as he smacked the ball all round the field.

He was the fifth player out but by then North East Valley was just 20 runs short of the target.

De Boorder got the side home with a few lusty blows.

The Valley team reached the target after 28.4 overs with four wickets in hand.

Marcus Frost took two wickets while all the other Taieri bowlers took one wicket each.

The national club championships will be played in Auckland at the end of the season.

Green Island handed Kaikorai a seven-wicket defeat in the Dunedin senior club competition at Sunnyvale on Saturday.

Kaikorai set a modest total of 166 after being all out in the 37th over after batting first.

That score would have been significantly less if it were not for Josh Finnie anchoring his side's innings with an unbeaten 91.

Dion Lobb set the early tone for the Green Island bowling attack taking the first three wickets of the innings. That brought Finnie to the crease with his side 46 for three.

Few of his batting partners offered the No4 much support before Lobb took the final Kaikorai wicket to finish with four wickets.

Green Island openers Gregor Croudis and Brad Wilson took a steady approach to their side's run chase and got 122 runs on the board before Finnie dismissed Croudis for 46 in the 26th over.

Wilson went three balls later, for 76, off Jeremy Smith's bowling.

That left his team-mates with 43 runs to chase with eight wickets in hand, a task which Green Island completed within 36 overs.

 

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