The sixth New Zealand Community Trust secondary school junior boys’ national finals cricket tournament will be held at Owen Delany Park in Taupo from March 23-26. Aimed at year 9 and 10 cricketers these finals represent the culmination of a major national competition that attracted 148 school entries and commenced at the start of the 2008/09 season.
This prestigious development tournament competition has already seen a number of players graduate from it to the ranks of first class cricket. They include: Corey Anderson [Christchurch Boys’ High School], George Worker [Palmerston North Boys’ High School], and Harry Boam [Wellington College]. White Fern Sophie Devine [Tawa College] also played in the inaugural tournament.
All the schools entered in the competition initially played knockout matches within their Major Cricket Associations, with their winners and the runners-up of the two associations with the most entries - Northern Districts and Central Districts this year – making it through to this year’s finals - a total of eight schools.
The 2009 finalist schools include: King’s College, Hamilton Boys’ High School, St Peter’s School, Francis Douglas Memorial College, Lindisfarne College, Hutt International Boys’ School, Christchurch Boys’ High School and Otago Boys’ High School.
For the national finals tournament these eight schools have been divided into two pools of four: The schools in each pool play round robin matches against each other over the first three days of the finals. They are then ranked on their results and on day four play crossover matches to determine the final placings and eventual winner of the 2009 NZCT Cup.
Pool A:
King’s College, St Peter’s School, Francis Douglas Memorial College, Otago Boys’ High School
Pool B:
Hutt International Boys’ School, Hamilton Boys’ High School, Lindisfarne College, Christchurch Boys’ High School
Hutt International Boys’ School, Hamilton Boys’ High School, Lindisfarne College, Christchurch Boys’ High School
Otago Boys’ High School, who were joint winners in 2007, are the only school this year who are returning to contest the finals. Hamilton Boys’ High School, Francis Douglas Memorial College, Lindisfarne College and Christchurch Boys’ High School have been in previous finals, with Christchurch Boys’ High School [2004, 2005] and Hamilton Boys’ High School [joint winners 2007] having secured the NZCT Cup title.
Three schools will be making their first ever appearance at the tournament this year, namely King’s College, St Peter’s School and Hutt International Boys’ School.
The national finals’ tournament will be opened at 9.15am on Monday, March 23 with the first round matches starting at 10.30am. The draw for day one is:
Pool A:
King’s College v St Peter’s School, Francis Douglas Memorial College v Otago Boys’ High School
Pool B:
Hamilton Boys’ High School v Lindisfarne College, Hutt International Boys’ School v Christchurch Boys’ High School
