North Otago
By TERRY O'NEILL
Valley and Union will meet in cricket's Borton Cup final on
Saturday.
Valley beat Oamaru by 106 runs at Weston at the weekend,
while Union defeated Albion by 122 runs at King George Park.
Oamaru won the toss and asked Valley to bat first.
After 14 overs, Valley was 41 for two with Nick Webster on
14.
He went on to top-score with a crucial innings of 77 to guide
Valley to a total of 230 runs before the final wicket fell in
the 49th over.
Byron Neill and Hamish McKenzie both added 24 runs, with
Scott Kingan making 23.
Bowling for Oamaru Nick Johnston took three for 49 and Ben
Cochrane three for 52.
Oamaru was in early trouble against the Valley attack of
Craig Direen and Dave Simpson and slumped to eight for two
after just four overs.
Wickets fell regularly - 52 for three, 66 for four, 90 for
six - before the side was dismissed for 106 in the 31st over.
Direen finished with five for 38 off his 10 overs and Neil
claimed three for eight off just four overs.
Albion sent Union in to bat first and Antony Cromwell (60)
and Jeremiah Shields(50) saw Union through to 121 without
loss after 28 overs.
Union lost three wickets in the next seven overs and after 41
of the 50 overs was 176 for six.
Paul Johnston (28 not out) saw Union through to 230 for eight
after 50 overs with Brad Kernahan and Paul O'Dell taking two
wickets each for Albion.
Two wickets in his first over by Dan Conlan had Albion
struggling to 20 for two after five overs.
Conlan at one stage had two for nine off two overs.
Kernahan (50) was the only batsman to show any resistance as
Albion battled to 64 for seven and 93 for nine before the
10th wicket fell in the 22nd over with Albion all out for
108.
Conlan finished with five for 51 and veteran Neville
Donaldson took four for 46 off his 10 overs.
Bowls
Youth and experience combined in Bowls North Otago's champion
of champion pairs played at the Awamoa club on Saturday when
the Pukeuri duo of Pat Kelly (skip) and Lyall Caldwell (lead)
beat Awamoa's Rob McLean (skip) and Colin Falconer (lead)
22-11 in the final.
For Kelly (20), it was his third Centre title while for
Caldwell (79), who has just recovered from heart surgery, it
was his 11th title.
Kelly and Caldwell beat the experienced Meadowbank
combination of Bob Campbell and Lenny Milner in the first
round, 20-15 and in the semifinals accounted for Ian Gallon
and John Haig of Kurow 21-15.
McLean and Falconer made it through to the final with wins
over Maheno's Neil Robson and Dave McLea 24-9, and Brian
Grumball and Jim Collins of Hampden 25-14.
In the final, the Pukeuri pair raced out to an 8-0 lead after
four ends.
Awamoa battled back to trail 8-10 after 10 ends, but Pukeuri
then won the next seven ends to go out to a 20-8 lead before
taking the title 22-11.
Val Lee of Awamoa took the women's veteran singles, beating
Daphne Campbell of Meadowbank 24-14, while Awamoa's Graeme
Larcombe took the men's veteran singles, beating Allan Holmes
of Maheno 21-7.
Softball
Bad light forced the closure of the senior men's softball
game between Waitaki Boys and Kiwi Dodgers, with Waitaki Boys
making the best of an early start to win 5-1.
Waitaki Boys kept Dodgers scoreless in its first turn to bat
and then scored four runs in their first innings with
automatic home runs to Jai Costello and Michael Familton.
Dodgers was unable to score in its second and third innings
with Matt Bentley scoring for Waitaki Boys at the bottom of
the third innings.
Dodgers hit back with six runs in its fourth innings but
failing light ended the game, leaving Waitaki Boys unable to
bat its fourth innings.
Waitaki Girls made a promising start to its game against Kiwi
Red Sox, but Red Sox finally got bat to ball to win 16-1.
Vicki Hamilton was the top batter for Red Sox with two
three-baggers.
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