St Paul’s 1st XI cricket team placed fourth in the national Gillette Cup top six final cricket competition, which was held from 8-12 December 2014 at Lincoln university.
The four day event ended with Christchurch Boys in first place and Kings College in second. St Paul’s tied with Hutt International with two wins each for third and fourth place; each teams' run rates decided these positions, with St Paul’s placing fourth. Nelson College and Kings High placed fifth and sixth.
8 December v Christchurch Boys
St Paul’s were put in to bat in overcast conditions on a hard green wicket against two time champions Christchurch Boys. Kippa Fawcett hit a stunning pull shot for four first ball of the tournament and put on 48 runs with Dillon Kelliher in very quick time before Fawcett was out for 21. At 75 for 1 off only 12 overs and then 125 for 3 from 26 overs St Paul’s looked set for a big score. However a big collapse of 7 wickets for 10 runs to one of the Christchurch spinners saw St Paul’s bowled out for 135, which was a very disappointing ending to a promising innings. Dillon Kelliher with 45 top scored with Chris Swanson also making 18.
In reply Simon Morbey with 1 for 23 from 6 and Tom Yarrall 1 for 17 from 6 bowled well early on, while Eli Spadoni bowled a good spell to take 2 for 29 from 8. However St Paul’s never had enough runs to challenge Christchurch Boys and went down by 6 wickets.
9 December v Nelson College
St Paul’s got off to another excellent start through Kippa Fawcett 22 and Dillon Kelliher 50, but again both got out just as big scores loomed. Chris Swanson with 42 and Reuben Andrews 21 kept the momentum going, but also couldn't give the team the match winning innings we needed. At 149 for 6, Aubrey Fish stepped up to play a superb innings with 51 not out from 49 balls including 4 big sixes, along with Bede Higgens 21 from 10 balls as St Paul’s made 223 for 7.
St Paul’s had Nelson struggling at 25 for 3 early, through two wickets to Simon Morbey and one to Chris Swanson. However an 88 run partnership put Nelson right back in the game, before Alastair Blackett dismissed both set batsmen in an inspired spell to take 4 for 41. Chris Swanson also returned to take 3 for 14 from 6 as St Paul’s bowled Nelson out for 162, to give St Paul’s their first victory by 52 runs.
10 December v Kings High School
In bitterly cold and wet conditions in a match shortened to 37 overs St Pauls asked Kings to bat first. Having lost their first two matches, Kings batted conservatively but sensibly to make 133 for 5. Cameron Wratt took 2 for 8 from 7 overs to be the best of the bowlers. All the bowlers stuck to their guns in very difficult conditions.
Promoted to open Reed Fisher and Kippa Fawcett saw off the opening bowlers, but only Fawcett with 13 in the top order could get above double figures as St Pauls struggled against an accurate Kings High bowling attack. It was not until Tom Yarrall 27 and Bede Higgens 14 came together at 72 for 7 that St Pauls put any pressure back on the opposition. With deft nudges and deflections and very intelligent running this pair put on 47 runs with relative ease, looking like they were going to get St Paul’s. However when Higgens was out at 119 a bad run out ensued and St Paul’s were eventually out for 123, some 10 runs short of the target.
11 December v Hutt International
Again in very cold conditions, St Paul’s opening bowlers didn’t have the best of starts and at 48 without loss the powerful Hutt batting lineup looked set for another big score. However Chris Swanson turned the match on its head with a sharp run out and taking 4 wickets in 4 overs including a very sharp catch by Kippa Fawcett. Spinners Bede Higgens with 3 for 14 and Eli Spadoni 2 for 5 also bowled well as Hutt went from 48 for 0 to 122 all out.
In reply most of the St Paul’s top order got starts with Fawcett 13, Kelliher 19 and Swanson 19 but none could go on to play a match winning innings. At 88 for 5 and most of the top order gone the game was finely balanced. However Bede Higgens promoted to number 3 batted with great concentration for 92 balls to make 33 not out found a capable ally in Aubrey Fish with 20 not out and this pair put on 39 runs to win the game for St Paul’s by 5 wickets.
12th December v Kings College
Batting first it was again a case of the top order getting starts but not going on with it as 4 of the top 5 made between 13 and 21 and every time the innings started to build momentum a wicket would be lost. Chris Swanson batted with real guts and determination to make 60, but too many wickets were lost to put real pressure on Kings at the end of the innings. Tom Yarrall with 21 and Simon Morbey 14 not out helped St Paul’s scramble up to 209.
St Paul’s got off to a flyer in the field with the opening bowlers bowling superbly and Yarrall taking 2 wickets in two balls along with another superb Swanson run out to have Kings floundering at 3 for 5. Enter Kings captain Mitchell Murray who had broken the Gillette Cup record with 171 earlier in the week who today struck a superb 134 not out. St Paul’s took one further wicket to captain Swanson, but with the sun finally reappearing the wicket became baked hard and St Paul’s found the going tough. St Pauls had a couple of chances later in the innings to put pressure on Kings but couldn't take them as Kings won the game by 6 wickets.
