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Kippax's Firebirds and Wellington Club Cricket Thread

nzfan

International Vice-Captain
Taita from memory made the one day and T20 finals as well? Outright victory in a club finals is an awesome achievement. Two good young sides.
 

HeathDavisSpeed

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Joon and Ravi having double failures costing Taita there. Interesting the old 3 day final for a 2 day tournament. Can't rack up those 400+ scores in normal Pearce Cup games. Makes the final quite a different prospect from the round robin matches.
 

Kippax

Cricketer Of The Year
A wrap of Wellington second-tier batting stats for 2020/21 (all formats combined).




Kings vs. Vikings T20 series (four out of five played at the Basin):

 
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Kippax

Cricketer Of The Year
Second-tier bowling stats (all formats combined).




Kings vs. Vikings T20 series:

 
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Flem274*

123/5
vishvaka could be worth a look next season. probably better to get him tested against back of a length bowling early, so he can correct it if his front foot charging of medium pacers has become too much of a meme.
 

HeathDavisSpeed

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Good stats from Greenwood and a few others not yet tried at FC level. Can't say I know anything about this Russell Hughes chap though. Interesting - as ever - to see Easts players getting those chances at the higher levels whilst those further out than Thorndon don't.
 

Kippax

Cricketer Of The Year
Yes Russell Hughes is South African-born but moved to the U.K. as a boy. Just a recreational and unambitious type I think. Before reaching Kapiti Old Boys and then North City, he had 30 games of Victorian club cricket and averaged just under 20.


Playing History
Northumberland U13,14,15,16,18 (England)
Blagdon Park CC (England)
Burnopfield CC (England)
Douglas Mitchell CC (South Africa)
Alnmouth and Lesbury CC (England)
Mildura East CC (Australia)
Richmond City CC (Australia)
Kapiti College Old Boys CC (New Zealand)
North City CC (New Zealand)
 

Kippax

Cricketer Of The Year

Watson, O’Brien added to Cricket Wellington specialist coaching model

Former Namibia head coach Doug Watson and former Firebirds and BLACKCAPS paceman Iain O’Brien have been added to Cricket Wellington’s high performance coaching staff.

Watson, the current Auckland Aces assistant coach, will join Wellington as the Firebirds specialist batting coach, while O’Brien will relocate to Wellington from the UK to take up the specialist pace bowling coach role.

Watson is a South African domestic cricket legend and is the KwaZulu-Natal Dolphin’s all-time most capped player. He has represented South Africa A at international level as a player and was the head coach of Namibia from 2012 to 2015.

Watson has also had coaching stints with the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League and as head coach of the KwaZulu-Natal Inland. He has been assistant coach of the Auckland Aces for three years and helped them lift the men’s domestic Ford Trophy title last summer.

“I’m really excited to be working for such a visionary and progressive MA,” said Watson.

“Wellington have a really clear vision of what they want to achieve in the future and I really feel like I can buy into that and I’m really excited to be joining up with them to work towards that vision.

“I’m hoping that my playing and coaching experience can rub off on the youngsters in the programme and help with what they’re trying to achieve in Wellington, and I want to bring a lot of enjoyment to the side too.

“I’d also like to thank everyone at Auckland Cricket for all of their support over the past three years – I’ve really enjoyed my time there and wish them all the best for the future.”

Petone born and bred, O’Brien made 167 appearances for the Firebirds between 2000 and 2010 and made his Test debut for the BLACKCAPS in 2004. He represented New Zealand 36 times across all three formats, taking 93 wickets. He has also had playing stints with English county cricket sides Leicestershire and Middlesex.

O’Brien is currently completing his ECB Level 3 coaching qualifications and adds a Bachelor of Education and a Diploma in Teaching to his many years of cricket coaching. He is also one year into a Master of Science degree in psychology.

O’Brien said he couldn’t wait to make an impact on fast bowling in the Capital.

“This is my dream job and one I have waited a long time to come up,” he said.

“I said to the interview panel that I would swim back for the job, and I still would. The success that the Blaze and the Firebirds have had is impressive - here's to more!

“I want to make sure the person behind the player is healthy and comfortable in the environment; and, given that, it's just so wonderful that I can be a part of the Wellington setup that changed my life and gave me something I had never dreamed of.

“To be able to influence Wellingtonians, their careers and send them onto incredible things, is a special feeling.”

Watson and O’Brien’s appointments are the final pieces of Cricket Wellington’s new high-performance coaching model which aims to provide Wellington’s elite cricketers with specialist coaches to achieve the organisation’s strategic objective of having more players representing New Zealand.

Cricket Wellington CEO Cam Mitchell said he was delighted to have secured the services of both coaches.

“We want to continue to produce top quality cricketers that perform well both for Wellington and on the international stage for New Zealand, and in Doug and Iain we believe we have two new coaches who will help us achieve that objective,” he said.

“Doug has a wealth of coaching experience at the highest level both here and back in South Africa and we know he will add a huge amount to the Firebirds environment.

“Iain has a huge amount of bowling experience at the highest level and is a passionate Wellingtonian and he will be an invaluable resource to our best fast bowlers in the Capital.”

Watson and O’Brien join Lance Dry, Luke Woodcock, and Ivan Tissera in the new Cricket Wellington high performance coaching structure, as well as Glenn Pocknall who’s contract as head coach of the Firebirds was extended until May 2024.

Cricket Wellington high performance coaching structure:
Wellington Firebirds Head Coach - Glenn Pocknall
Wellington Firebirds Specialist Batting Coach - Doug Watson
Wellington Blaze Head Coach - Lance Dry
Specialist Pace Bowling Coach - Iain O’Brien
Blaze and Pathway Batting Coach - Luke Woodcock
Youth Development Coach - Ivan Tissera

*Lance Dry, Luke Woodcock, and Ivan Tissera to share specialist spin bowling coach role
 

Kippax

Cricketer Of The Year
Karori chasing 108 to win the national club championship today (now a T20 tournament). Blundell already gone though to Ross ter Braak.



Note that last season's champion teams were invited back to this, due to its full cancellation last year. Taita probably set for an appearance next April.
 

nzfan

International Vice-Captain
69 bowled out Karori, both sides had fair number of first class players playing.
 

jcas0167

International Debutant
I thought the nzcricket site usually carried the scorecard for this but I can't see it on there.

Presumably a dire batting surface judging by the low scores of the Karori players. Didn't realise Pollard was at Karori.
 

Kippax

Cricketer Of The Year
I'll post Will Young's Durham dismissals in here, seeing they're of minor relevance to Conway and Wellington.



Essex comms quite impressed by Young during his first 30 balls (the stylish drives), but began to find his fretful and slow play to the spin of Harmer to be a bit of a letdown for an overseas recruit who's closer to 30 years of age than 20. Nice that Borthwick (motored to 100 off 120 balls) is clearly valuing Young already as a somewhat attractive and conscientious little assistant for the month ahead, as seen by the punch of the bat when Young fell.
 

nzfan

International Vice-Captain
Glad to see Young bat out as many balls. Will come in handy. I guess his scores won't necessarily mean much but if he can spend all much time in the middle that'll be great for Black caps. Was the game live? Link to the full game?
 

nzfan

International Vice-Captain
The decks looks fine for batting in comparison to what we get early in the season. Our batters would love it if the early season pitches resembled the above.
 

nzfan

International Vice-Captain
Slow day today so watched every ball of Young's inning. Not a fluent inning by any measure. Most runs through third man. The bowlers were slow medium to say the least, no short balls just stock standard fuller or slightly back of a length. It barely bounced over the knee. I thought dukes bounces a lot more than Kooka.

By the 16th over the spinner was on. Strangely the ball was turning and bouncing. The ball Young got out to ideally should be dispatched outside the ground. Suppose Young was looking to spend some time in the middle hence that little dibble down leg. Couple of games later that ball will be fetched from outside the ground surely.
 

Kippax

Cricketer Of The Year
Oh I doubt Young will ever fire a big shot across the bows of those arrogant South African-born threats. He'll look quite organised and cute and then surrender meekly and quietly, most times.

Essex will get Harmer on as early as the 16th over in April because he's the complete opposite of Young's personality, really. A superior 'big man on campus' who thinks he might just be the best off-spinner in the world, if some country's administrators out there would just let him prove this.


Still, Harmer has clearly hankered for bigger challenges. In 2019, four years on from the last of his five Tests for South Africa, the frustrations of his ceiling as a Kolpak player were clear when speaking to Wisden Cricket Monthly. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m the best off-spinner in the world,” he said. “But how can I say that when I’m not competing against the best batters in the world?…That’s who I want to be, but I can’t truly say that until I’ve played 60 Tests.”
 

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