Tauranga Boys’ College – Back With the Big Boys

The National cricket finals will be held in Palmerston North in December. Six teams compete in 50-aside matches over five days to crown New Zealand’s top cricket school. Tauranga Boys’ College is one of the teams present at the 2017 edition of the tourney.

Squad
Coach: Charles Williams (Bay of Plenty Senior Coach)
Manager: Neil Howard (Former Bay of Plenty rep)
Squad: Mikaere Leef, Craig Baldry, Brad Howard, Andrew Mascall, Tas Carsons, Marcel Collett, Dominic Crombie, Rhys Mischewski, Ben Pomare, Finn Sears, Imanpreet Singh,Rhys Donaghy
Note: Tauranga had four Year 13’s and eight Year 12’s in the squad that won the qualifying tournament.
Leading Run Scorer: Marcel Collet
Leading Wicket Taker: Rhys Mischewski
Dual Codes: Andrew Mascall and Mikaere Leef are in the First XV rugby team.

Competition
Tauranga play in the Baywide Men’s’ Premier competition and have done so since the 1960’s. Tauranga tends to finish mid-table. The 2009 team notably won the competition.

This season Trent Boult has appeared for his club side in this competition. Other notable Bay of Plenty players involved are Kane Williamson, Daniel Flynn, Corey Anderson and Dean Brownlie, all of whom are Black Caps. Additionally Tauranga play a 50-over Super 8 competition in January and long-standing traditional fixtures.

Nationals Pathway
Tauranga’s path to Nationals involves a week long qualifying tournament held in Hamilton. To qualify, Tauranga defeated Whangarei Boys’ High School, Hillcrest High School, St Paul’s Collegiate and Hamilton Boys’ High School. The win over St Paul’s was very notable on their home ground.

Proud History
Kane Williamson (Black Caps Captain), Daniel Flynn, Brett Hampton, Bharat Poplima and Joe Carter are all playing first class cricket at present. Bay of Plenty hold the Hawke Cup and in the present reign 15 old boys have featured in the side. TBC won the Northern Districts qualifying competition in 2014 and 2015. All of the boys in this team therefore have played a finals tournament in Palmerston North before. Tauranga won the National cricket title in 2005,