Hawke's Bay cricket team

A Hawke's Bay cricket team, representing Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand, played first-class cricket between 1883–84 and 1920–21, competing in the Plunket Shield in the 1914-15 and 1920–21 seasons. The side has continued to appear in minor cricket and now competes in the Hawke Cup competition.

First-class history

In their first match at first-class level, against Wellington at the Basin Reserve in February 1884, Hawke's Bay were dismissed for just 32 in their second innings thanks to Joseph Firth's remarkable return of 8 for 13 from 13 four-ball overs.[1] In their next match, in 1884-85, they beat Wellington at Napier Recreation Ground by eight wickets.[2]

They lost their next three matches, all against Wellington, before trouncing Taranaki in two matches in 1891-92. In the first of these matches they dismissed Taranaki for 70 and 39 and the game was over in one day.[3] In the second match Hawke's Bay made 128 then dismissed Taranaki for 35 and 29.[4]

Hawke's Bay's matches remained low-scoring affairs. They did not reach a total of 200 until their 17th match in 1895-96, when they made 207 against Wellington in a drawn match.[5] Their first individual century came in 1897-98, when Hugh Lusk made 119 against Canterbury.[6] Lusk went on to make three of Hawke's Bay's five centuries. He was by far Hawke's Bay's outstanding batsman: in 28 matches he scored 1395 runs at an average of 28.46,[7] and also took 40 wickets at 22.85,[8] as well as captaining the side in most of his matches and representing New Zealand.

In all Hawke's Bay played 53 first-class matches, for 11 wins, 35 losses and seven draws. Twenty-four of those matches were against their neighbours, Wellington; Hawke's Bay won six of these and lost 14. They lost both their Plunket Shield matches (against Canterbury in 1914-15 and Auckland in 1920-21) by an innings.

The highest score for Hawke's Bay was 134 against Wellington in 1914-15 by Jack Board,[9] the English Test player who coached in Hawke's Bay for several seasons before World War I. The best innings bowling figures were 9 for 47 by Thomas Dent against Wellington in 1900-01,[10] and the best match figures were 13 for 33 (7 for 20 and 6 for 13) by Charles Smith in the second match against Taranaki in 1891-92.

Since 1920-21

Hawke's Bay has won the Hawke Cup several times. Their first victory was in 1946-47, and their most recent in 2008-09.

In 1950-51 the Central Districts cricket team began competing in the Plunket Shield. The Hawke's Bay Cricket Association is one of Central Districts' constituent associations.

References

External links