Andrew Templer Action Bay of Plenty Indoor Sports Stadium actionindoorsports.com

Just one week since the junior provincial national championships in Wellington and the planning begins for the netball nationals at the same venue in March 2011.

The indoor cricket season has been fantastic, especially at youth level, with 22 boys being named from Action Bay of Plenty to represent the Northern Districts region against the best from around New Zealand.

In the 11 and under age group, the Bay of Plenty boys made up nine of the 10 from Northern Districts. These boys made their presence felt with strong wins over Central Districts and Otago. Throw in a one run win against Wellington and a narrow lose to Canterbury and our boys deserved to be in the final against Auckland. However, it all came undone here, Auckland was too good on the day and ND was well beaten. (I am not going to list the score...) A huge occasion for the boys and there was a lot of emotion on the day, claiming the silver medal was a great result.

In the 13 and under age group, the Bay again supplied nine of the 10 boys selected to represent the ND region. Our boys had a tough time of it in this grade as quite a few of the boys were still only 12, opposed to some teams having boys turning 14. But what a revelation the boys were on the final day after handing Otago another loss they then went on to beat Auckland easily. A fantastic performance by the boys and their coach Simon Kean to get them up for this game.

So to the 15 and under grade and the Bay had three boys selected, Jacob Morton, Thomas Wakelin and Mitchell Bodnar. A very tough grade with the boys that play at this level having a high skill level. Our boys all played well and did the province and themselves proud, although they didn't get the results they would have liked. Mitchell Bodnar was selected as captain for the last few games and this showed the confidence the Counties based coach had in him. An honour for Mitchell and we are all hopeful he can go on to lead many ND teams in the future.

The final age group at the junior nationals is the 17 and under and the Bay had just one boy selected. Shaun McCarthy, a Tauranga Boys' first XI player held the flag for the Bay. The ND boys narrowly missed the final and played off against Central Districts for third and fourth. With our boys playing out of their skins the result was never in doubt, a win to ND and a third place finish. Shaun then was named runner up MVP for the tournament, it's just a matter of time before higher honours come his way.

So, to the prizegiving and the naming of the New Zealand teams to take on South Africa next year in July. South Africa are sending a 13 and under and 15 and under team to play five tests against the boys, while ND had a number of boys named in these teams no boys from the Bay got the nod. It must be mentioned however that Max Morton and Blair McKenzie from the 11 and under were both named in the tournament team for their age group.

So with the representative indoor cricket season winding up the planning begins for the next national tournament, the 2011 Indoor Netball Nationals in Wellington.
Action Bay of Plenty will be selecting two teams to represent the Bay of Plenty in the mixed team's event. Coaches and managers are being finalised with the trials being late October, I will keep you posted.