The determination of the players to produce a result, defied the wet weather on Saturday (19 March 2016) afternoon - which resulted in two Te Puke region sides claiming the 2016 WBOPCA Reserve and B Grade Cricket Championships.

Heavy rain leading up to the weekend, ruined the cricket finale on the adjoining grass wickets at Blake Park. The decision was made on Friday, to shift the Reserve Grade title decider to the artificial surface at Gordon Spratt Reserve with the B Grade final transferred to the Pemberton Park artificial wicket.

Te Puke batted first against the Sangha XI, in the Reserve Grade final and were bowled out for 142. Nathan Wilson top scored for Te Puke with 31, with Sangha bowler Deepak Singh doing plenty of damage with the ball taking four wickets at a cost of 24 runs.

While the Sangha XI, made a determined attempt add the Western Bay championship to the 2016 McNaughton Trophy, they were bowled out for 104, to hand Te Puke the championship title. Deepak Singh starred with both bat and ball with his sides top score of 32 runs, with Te Puke bowler Raminder Singh grabbing three valuable bowling scalps, in his teams 38 run victory.

The B Grade title decider went down to the wire, before the Singh XI scrambled home to beat Grasshoppers by a solitary wicket. Hoppers reached 156/7 in their turn at bat with Ben Goodall top scoring with a gritty half century.

While the Singh XI were on target with the required run rate, they lost regular wickets, with Amrit Singh spearheading the fight-back with his team's highest score of 44 runs. Grasshoppers bowlers Jef Holmes and Ben Goodall took three wickets apiece – with the Te Puke Indian team grabbing their first Western Bay title with one wicket to spare.

Western Bay of Plenty Cricket Championships 19 March 2016 – Results

Reserve Grade

Te Puke 142 (Nathan Wilson 31, Deepak Singh 4/24) defeated Sangha XI 104 (Deepak Singh 32, Raminder Singh 3/28)

B Grade

Grasshoppers 156/7 (Ben Goodall 52) lost to Singh XI 157/9 (Amrit Singh 44, Jef Holmes 3/37, Ben Goodall 3/31)

By Barry Leabourn