A Battle of the Bays is looming as the Hawke's Bay men's cricket team prepare for their next Hawke Cup defence, against Bay of Plenty in Napier on February 11-13.
Bay of Plenty secured the right to the challenge with a first-innings win over Northland at Kamo, Whangarei, scoring 373 batting first and then dismissing Northland for 163.
The win was enough to win the Zone 1 preliminary series, involving minor associations within the boundaries of the Northern Districts and Auckland first-class cricket associations.
At the same time, Pay Excellence Hawke's Bay, which reclaimed the cup with victory by an innings over North Otago in February last year, were successfully defending the trophy for a second time since that match with a first-innings win over Manawatu, reaching 292-3 in the last session of a three-day game at Nelson Park to overtake Manawatu's score of 290 all-out.
There could be a few scores to settle in the next defence, with BoP having resoundingly beaten Hawke's Bay in the teams' two most recent Hawke Cup matches.
In March 2016, BoP came to Napier as the first challenger in a new Hawke's Bay tenure and headed back to Tauranga with an outright win by six wickets.
Just under a year later when trying to regain the cup in Mount Maunganui, Hawke's Bay were humiliated, being bowled out for 103 in reply to BOP's 170, batting first after Hawke's Bay won the toss and elected to field. BoP made 470 in its second innings leaving Hawke's Bay with no option but to try to smash its way to victory, but capitulating and being 120-7 as the match drew to a close.
There will be anxious moments for Hawke's Bay coach and selector Christie van Dyk, who - with four of the weekend's team in the Central Districts Stags wider squad - won't know who he will have available for the defence until at least next Monday.
Leading the Ford Trophy one-day series, none of the four were required for Tuesday's match in which the Stags beat Auckland Aces by 113 runs, and have two matches against Canterbury in Christchurch at the time the Hawke Cup challenge is played.
Van Dyk expects to have at least one, with Bayley Wiggins back in form, a CD century-maker earlier in the season and then recovering from injury to score a match-high 72 not out in the weekend's Hawke Cup win.
Meanwhile, Hawke's Bay's defence of Central Districts women's prize the Mike Shrimpton Trophy had some sort of boost, but probably too late, as its team scored its second win in this season's competition on Sunday, also in Napier.
In a series of home-and-away one-day matches, the Bay batted first and scored 193-8 off 40 overs, and dismissed Wairarapa for 143 with two overs and four balls to spare.
First-drop Kerry Tomlinson hit 10 fours in a top score of 57 for Hawke's Bay, with
opening bowler Gretel Fairbrother the destroyer in Wairarapa's innings, taking 4-9 off six overs.
Hawke's Bay have a double-header in Palmerston North next week, against Nelson on February 12 and competition leader Manawatu the next day.
They opened the five-team competition with a win over Nelson in November but, after the abandonment of a first-scheduled game against Taranaki, then had successive losses to Taranaki, Wairarapa and Manawatu, and are now in fourth place.
