Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

Bay of Plenty Cricket's flagship senior representative team, took a big step to regaining their place as top dog in New Zealand minor association cricket, in a pre-season three match series with Hawkes Bay during Labour weekend.

During the past five seasons, the Bay first eleven had won the NZ Cricket minor association prize of the Hawke Cup on two occasions and then defended the much sought after trophy on a further eight occasions.

Last season kicked off with plenty of promise, with Bay of Plenty finishing second in the ND Twenty 20 championship held in Taupo in December. However the wheels fell off in the second half of the season, with the best result being a rained off game which gave the Bay side shared points - and three losses.

The loss of up to half a dozen players through retirement and moving away, set the selectors a real challenge as they planned their current season ND representative program. However the good news was that nine secondary school youngsters, who played in the Bay of Plenty Development team last season, provided a deep pool of young talent for the future.

Last year's Labour weekend pre-season against Hawkes Bay, has been inked in as a regular fixture with the Howell Family Cup on the line for the first time, at the Tauranga Domain on Saturday and Sunday.

The other "Bay" are the ideal opponents for the shaking out of cobwebs early in the new cricket season, before Bay of Plenty and Hawkes Bay, head off in their respective Northern and Central Districts representative campaigns.

The Bay selectors applied an approach of experience and emerging talent as they selected two squads for the weekend games. A strong Twenty 20 team of the best available players was chosen for the two Saturday T20 encounters, with the introduction of several youngsters in Sunday's 50 overs per side match.

However it was several "old hands" that resulted in Bay of Plenty lifting aloft the Howell Family Cup in victory at the Tauranga Domain on Sunday afternoon.

Jono Boult, who made his first Bay appearance in 2003, took control in the first T20 match to blast an unbeaten 75 off just 42 balls to take his side to a nine wicket win.

New Bay of Plenty skipper Joe Carter, with a half-century of Bay appearances and a highest score of 215no in his cricket CV, combined with Boult to belt undefeated half centuries as the Bay boys set their opponents a very big target of 179 in game two. However it all came undone, with Hawkes Bays Dean Foxcroft going ballistic to smash his side to victory with a neat century.

With a game apiece entering the day two fifty over per side contest, the Howell Family Cup was well and truly up for grabs. Hawkes Bay won the toss and elected to bat and posted a very gettable target of 208. As happened throughout the three weekend encounters, the Bay of Plenty wickets were shared around, with the bowling attack having a good preparation for the upcoming ND campaigns.

The home team were cruising at 174 for the loss of five wickets, however a Hawkes Bay hat-trick changed the momentum. It was left to Ben Musgrave (42no) and Tauranga Boys College youngster Taylor Bettelheim (13no) to steer their team home to a three wicket win.

The Bay selectors left the Tauranga Domain having solved a few more puzzles in this year's Bay of Plenty team selections. The Bay look on track (at this stage) to restore the ND trophies of the Brian Dunning (T20) Trophy and the Fergus Hickey (Two-Day) Rosebowl, to their trophy cabinet at BOPCA headquarters at the Bay Oval.