Men's Premier Reserve - the season so far
Friday, 17 February 2012
Takapuna and East Coast Bays will contest the final once again after Bays victory last year
The Men's Premier Reserve Grade runs as a parallel competition to the Premier grade (minus the T20 competition) with teams playing both two and one-day matches.
In the two-day competition, as in the premier version, eight sides form the major championship, six the minor.
Six clubs, Suburbs New Lynn, East Coast Bays, Takapuna, North Shore, Parnell and Howick Pakuranga have sides in both major championships, Grafton United and Waitakere City round out the reserve grade's top tier.
As with the premier competition Suburbs New Lynn are the team to beat. They currently sit top of the major championship with East Coast Bays close behind in second.
Bays are yet to be defeated in either format and after those two there is a gap of more than 10 points to third placed Takapuna, who are closely followed by North Shore to round out the top four.
In the minor championship Cornwall are top with a 3.27 point lead over Auckland University.
In the one-day format three clubs who qualified for the premier grade one-day semi's also did so in the reserve grade with Suburbs New Lynn, East Coast Bays and Takapuna joining Waitakere City in the semi-finals.
While Suburbs reached the premier finals, a player shortage in the top side seemingly effected the reserves performance and they succumbed to East Coast Bays in the semi's who will now meet Takapuna in Sunday's final at Onewa Domain to defend the title they won last season.
Taka have a unique opportunity to capture both the one-day finals on the same day as their prems side meet Suburbs New Lynn in their own one-day final and club coach Neil Fletcher is delighted with the overall squad performance:
“Over the top two sides we have had a good season considering we lost four senior players from last season. The younger players are stepping up at both prems and reserve levels and the club has demonstrated good depth within the club to reach both one-day finals.”
For Bays the key to the final could be the performances of star batsmen Kieran Goodhew, who is the reserve grades fourth highest run scorer with 366, and teammate Travis Brown, who is second on the wicket taking charts with 35 to his name.
Suburbs New Lynn bowler Fawad Ahadi leads the reserves grade with 38 wickets while Auckland University's Matt O'Sullivan is the competitions leading run scorer with 455 to his name.
Once the one-day final is complete the sides will turn their attentions to the remainder of the two-day season. In the major championship there is one round to go before the sides are separated into top four and bottom four. From there they will play a further two rounds to decide the champion team.
In the minor championship there are three rounds to go with the winner replacing the major championship's bottom club in next season’s competition.
Men's Premier Reserve Grade | Limited Overs Championship
White Section
Suburbs New Lynn 19.5
ILG East Coast Bays 19.5
Parnell 16.5
North Shore 13.5
Papatoetoe 12.0
Grafton United 7.5
Ellerslie 4.5
Blue Section
Takapuna 13.5
Waitakere City 10.5
Cornwall 10.5
HRV Howick Pakuranga 7.5
HRV Birkenhead City 6.0
Auckland University 4.5
Eden Roskill 1.5
Men's Premier Reserve Grade | Two Day Championship
Major Championship
Suburbs New Lynn 60.49
ILG East Coast Bays 58.74
Takapuna 48.24
North Shore 44.09
Parnell 42.30
HRV Howick Pakuranga 38.70
Grafton United 32.13
Waitakere City 30.48
Minor Championship
Cornwall 50.16
Auckland University 46.89
Eden Roskill 44.85
Papatoetoe 44.04
Ellerslie 36.82
HRV Birkenhead City 26.94
Reserve Grade's leading run-scorers
Matt O'Sullivan (Auckland University) 455 runs, avge 35.00
Jay Boyd (Waitakere City) 415 runs, avge 37.73
Tejas Patel (Suburbs New Lynn) 367 runs, avge 40.78
Reserve Grade's leading wicket-takers
Fawad Ahadi (Suburbs New Lynn) 38 wickets, avge 12.32
Travis Brown (East Coast Bays) 35 wickets, avge 12.63
Mick Watson (Grafton United) 32 wickets, avge 16.72