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Sports correspondent & historian with |
Last Saturday, a Mount Maunganui Premier bowler achieved a rare-as-hens’-teeth feat, taking nine wickets in an innings against Te Puke at Te Puke Domain.
Henry Conway claimed the first six Te Puke wickets before another Mount bowler took a solitary scalp. Conway then returned to remove the final three Te Puke batters.
He finished his 16 overs with remarkable figures of 9/47.
While nine wickets in an innings is an extremely rare achievement, a look back through Western Bay of Plenty cricket history reveals a number of other Premier club nine-wicket hauls over the past half-century and beyond.
To find three more nine-wicket performances, you need look no further than the Mount Maunganui Cricket Club honours board.
L.D. (David) Andersen, a fearsome pace bowler, took nine wickets in back-to-back seasons during the 1969/70 and 1970/71 campaigns. Andersen was in rampant form against Katikati in the 1969/70 season, finishing with 9/17.
Within the next 12 months, Andersen again wrote his name into Western Bay of Plenty Premier cricket folklore, recording 9/24 in his side’s match against Albion. His dominance with the ball was reflected in a career tally of 13 six-wicket (or better) hauls in Mount Maunganui’s Premier side.
Fast forward to the 1988/89 season and the third Mount nine-wicket haul, achieved by Bay of Plenty cricket great D.A. (Derek) Beard. The 1980s saw the advent of Baywide Premier cricket and Beard was in unstoppable form, taking 9/22 against Whakatāne United.
Like Andersen, Beard was a prolific taker of six-wicket hauls, finishing his time in the green and gold with 11 entries on the Mount bowling honours board.
Tauranga Boys’ College has a rich cricket history dating back to the Tauranga District High School era of the 1940s and 1950s. Tim Blake sits atop the school’s Premier bowling honours with figures of 9/26 against Te Puke High School Old Boys in 1981.
Interschool fixtures have long been an important part of Tauranga Boys’ College cricket. As far back as 1959, Basil Anquetil took 9/25 against Takapuna Grammar School, while 13 years later, Mark Bracewell finished with 9/18 against the same school.
Te Puke Cricket Club, which traces its origins back to 1887, has two nine-wicket hauls on its honours roll. Lance Cairns is credited with 9/13 in the 1980s, while Rodger McBrydie recorded 9/17 some three decades later.
One other Western Bay of Plenty cricket club honours board features a nine-wicket return. Ōtūmoetai Cadets’ T. Grey claimed 9/47 during the 1986/87 season.
My take on the future is that today’s nine-wicket performance should be celebrated, as such figures are likely to become increasingly rare. Covered pitches and modern “monster bats” have tipped the scales in favour of batters, forcing bowlers to work ever harder for big wicket hauls. As a result, nine-wicket innings may become few and far between in the years ahead.
