Team breaks new ground at national tournament

• Published date: 05 April 2024
• Publication title: Oamaru Mail

Waitaki Boys’ High School competed at the Junior Secondary Boys National Cricket Tournament in Palmerston North last month

Waitaki Boys’ was the first Waitaki school to play at a national cricket tournament.

The tournament saw them take on cricketing powerhouses such as Hamilton Boys’ High School, Christchurch Boys’ High School, Auckland Grammar School and Wellington College.

It was great for the players to be exposed to that level of cricket, coach Mark Wilson said.

‘‘It was a different level of cricket for a lot of those boys.

‘‘They now realise that and that was a bit of an eye opener. But, in saying that, I felt that our top cricketers did compete really well against all of those schools at times. With the numbers they have, compared to the numbers we have, I was really impressed with how our boys went.’’

While they did not win a game, the team took away plenty of positives.

‘‘We had a lot of internal results that we wanted to achieve and we reached all of those.

‘‘One of the big ones was we wanted to bat 40 overs against Auckland Grammar. They’re one of the big [cricketing] schools of the country and if we could get through 40 overs against them, potentially that may put a bit of pressure on them.’’

The team was also awarded...