Harper Sercombe
After a tough few years for St Anthony’s in the Gisborne and District Cricket Association, it is back and in a big way.
Last season the Saints finished eighth in the Jensen Shield, now they are undefeated after the first six rounds.
On the weekend the Saints played fellow finals contender Melton South in a one day clash at Mount Carberry Reserve.
The Saints were sent in to bat and were able to put up an healthy score of 8-250 after 40 overs.
After losing skipper Zac Giblett early for zero the Saints were able to build their innings thanks for a 140 run partnership between Manpreet Randhawa and Mandeep Singh Aujla.
Randhama scored a ton off 118 balls but was dismissed in the 40th over with the delivery after raising the bat.
Aujla was even more attacking, falling agonisingly short of triple figures, scoring 95 off just 75 balls, smashing 13 boundaries and four majors.
“We were pretty happy with the score, it was really good, they’re undefeated which has been a big change around, even our twos are second on the ladder too, the club’s going pretty good this year,” president Marc Turner said.
“We’ve got a few new faces who are all going pretty well so that’s been pretty good.”
The Royals were competitive in the chase falling just 16 runs short, at 5-234 after their 40 overs.
Anthony Yates top scored for the Royals with an undefeated 70. Simarjeet Singh was the pick of the Saints’ bowlers taking 2-19 off eight overs.
“He’s always right on the money when he’s bowling and he’s pretty good and pretty consistent, we’ve got a lot of good bowlers down there,” Turner said on Singh.
As the Christmas break nears Turner is setting his expectations high for the back end of the season.
“I think this team can take it out, they’ve looked pretty good against the teams they’ve played so far,” he said.
“Everything’s going good and I think the boys are pretty confident, they’re looking for big things out of the season.”
“The main competition is Aintree, about seven of the players from our ones were picked up from Aintree in the pre season, just before the season started so it should be interesting.
“There might be a bit of rivalry there but it’s good to see.”
Aintree is the only other undefeated side in the competition, so there will be more than just bragging rights to play for on Saturday, when the sides take to Arnolds Creek Recreation Reserve for their round seven, one day clash.
