Sports correspondent & historian with Sideline Sid

Last Saturday saw the end of the local cricket season with both Bay of Plenty and Western Bay of Plenty staging championship finals day.

It is interesting to note that much had been made of the lack of local sport results in the region’s two daily newspapers in recent years.

In my opinion, local cricket fans are better served today with live scoring available on the majority of Bay of Plenty and Western Bay senior club matches through the world-wide-web.

Wind back the clock and the reality was that we had to wait until the Monday morning edition of the daily rag to catch up with a full wrap of the weekend results.

Bay of Plenty Cricket is at a high point, with the intensity of the Baywide premier club competition feeding through to the Bay of Plenty senior men’s representative team.

The 2024/25 season saw the Bay side dominate the ND representative competition in winning 10 of their 11 matches.

Last weekend the time-honoured BOPCA Williams Cup, that dates back to the early 1930s, was fought out between Mount Maunganui and Te Puke on the hallowed Bay Oval turf.

The match turned into a classic 50 over contest with Te Puke setting the Mount side a solid target of 200 runs to claim the season’s biggest prize.

Pete Drysdale, who seems to have been round the Mount first 11 forever, did what he does best in anchoring the middle order with victory in sight, in posting a half-century.

Earlier in the season the green and gold brigade had won the Bay of Plenty Cup, with Cadets earning the Baywide T20 title.

Special mention needs to be made of Papamoa who made their premier debut just four seasons ago. They play like tigers on their home base at the Alice Johnson Oval and reached the T20 title decider before being beaten by Cadets.

The Western Bay of Plenty Cricket Association plays a valuable role in the local game. Western Bay Cricket administers massive junior cricket numbers as well as providing for a full range of senior cricket aspirations.

Division One and Two title races provide serious cricket for younger players with higher aspirations and also others that have endured the furnace of premier cricket in the past.

Division Three and Four competitions are fought out over 40 overs per side with a more laidback approach by some teams.

However, Tauranga Boys’ College has used Div Three and Four competitions to introduce their emerging young players to the rigours of senior men’s cricket.

This paid off big-time in Division Three this year, where TBC White took out the championship honours after beating Bay Blasters Black by 120 runs.

Bay Blasters are part of the changing face of the Western Bay senior games where 13 of the 33 teams, players, hail from the Asian subcontinent.

Other Western Bay of Plenty Cricket title finals resulted in Otūmoetai Cadets winning both the Div One and Two crowns, with the Danphe CC emerging triumphant in the Division Four championship.

While the bats, balls and wickets will be quickly packed away - in around three months - players will start to get antsy for the smell of willow and leather and start their buildup for the new cricket season.