Club Cricket: How do the five ILT Premier League teams stack up?
Today we take a look at just how the five teams in the ILT Premier League are shaping up for what is expected to be another intriguing summer of Southland club cricket.
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Saturday marks day one of the 2023-2024 Southland club cricket season.
Five teams will this season contest the ILT Premier League competition. The Metropolitan Cricket Club - for the first time in 33 years - is not fielding a team in the senior competition.
The Metropolitan Club was an amalgamation of the Georgetown and Union clubs in the 1990s. It has struggled for player numbers in recent seasons.
The reduction from six to five teams means a bye has now been introduced for the 2023-2024 season.
Today The Tribune takes a look at just how those five teams in the ILT Premier League are shaping up for what is expected to be another intriguing summer of cricket.
APPLEBY
Captain: Sam Downing
Key Players: Kieran Lloyd, Aaron Hart, Connor Hart
Last season’s finish: Champions
The lowdown: There is a lot of pride and excitement down at the Appleby Cricket Club leading into the season after winning last season’s title. But most importantly Appleby is celebrating its 125th year this season.
The side has lost key all-rounder Hayden Hart this season who is spending the summer overseas playing rugby. Medium pacer Cam Murphy will also not be back.
However, Appleby has picked up all-rounder Rob Leishman, who has improved each week in preseason and is likely to feature for both the senior side and division 2 side throughout the season.
Appleby has also recruited Lachie Riley out of Southland Boys’ High School.
A player to watch is Aaron Hart after he spent the winter abroad playing cricket in the UK.
MARIST
Captain: TBC
Key players: Sithum Niluminda, Tom McCabe, Alec Mathieson, Mitchell Harvey, Jermey Boyle, Ben McKerchar.
Last season's finish: Fourth
The lowdown: Marist is rebuilding nicely after a disappointing past couple of seasons. The recruitment of Sithum Niluminda and Dylan Hawkes add to an already strong bowling line up. The challenge for Marist this season will be to put enough runs on the board for the strong bowling attack to defend.
Marist does still have one of Southland club cricket’s most proven batting performers in Shaun Fitzgibbon to call on.
With a three-team final format scheduled for this season, it is important that Marist make a good start to the competition in order to ensure they are challenging when the trophies are dished out.
INVERCARGILL-OLD BOYS
Captain: Sam McLauchlan
Key players: Blake Buttar-Scurr, Liam McWilliam, Kieran O'Neill, Brayden Thomas and Sam Nicholson
Last season’s finish: Beaten finalists
The lowdown: Invercargill-Old Boys has made impressive strides in recent seasons to the point the Queens Park-based club is now a powerhouse in Southland’s senior club competition.
They did fall short to Appleby in last season’s decider and will be looking to rectify that this summer.
Invercargill-Old Boys has again pulled together a useful team, although they have lost a couple handy players in Keegan Russell (Tauranga) and Cody McKenzie (Brisbane).
They have picked up Sahil Rana from the Royal Riders, while Ryan Acland and Jason Boyle are retuning.
Blair McKenzie is likely to be out for most, if not all, of the season due to a serious leg injury he picked up during the rugby season.
Invercargill-Old Boys has plenty of experience and knowledge to call on with Brendan Domigan moving into a player/coach type role this season.
WAIKOIKOI
Captain: Kurt Thompson
Key players: Jared McKenzie, Kurt Thompson, Liam McFaul, Ryan McFaul
Last season’s finish: Beaten semi-finalist
The lowdown: Waikoikoi has been a consistent performer in Southland’s senior club cricket competition for many seasons now and are again expected to be there come the crunch stage of the season.
The bulk of the squad is back for another go in 2023-2024 which puts the sole country club in the topflight competition in a good position.
They have some real experience to call on through the likes of Jared McKenzie and Kurt Thompson.
Remarkably the little town, situated 20-odd km from Gore, again is not just fielding a team in the ILT Premier League but will also be represented in the PGG Wrightson Division Two competition.
SOUTHLAND BOYS’ HIGH SCHOOL
Captain: Zach Harrington
Key Players: Shahen Wijesinghe, Duncan Tait, Charlie Hopcroft, Zach Harrington
Last Season finish: Sixth
The lowdown: Southland Boys’ High School has lost plenty of players with the likes of Lachie Riley, Dylan Hawkes, Mika Muliaina, Gregor Rutledge, and Nick Brown all finishing up.
Although Brown will play the first part of the season for SBHS.
SBHS will field a very young team for the 2023-2024 season although there are some talented players emerging.
Zach Harrington is an attacking opening batsman. Duncan Tait a consistent all-rounder who opens the batting and bowls medium pace. Charlie Hopcroft is a big left arm opening bowler, while Shahen Wijesinghe is a leg spinner and part of Otago U19 squad. He’s also handy with the bat.
The squad inlcudes two year 10 boys - Travis Mann (allrounder) and Henry Hopcroft (tall medium fast bowler). Both have played extremely well throughout the SBHS colts interschool season last season.
To guide that youth veteran Southland cricketers Hamish Skelt and Mark Billcliff will step in as player coaches, while Shaun Fitzgibbon will also help with coaching.
ROUND ONE DRAW
SBHS first XI v Appleby Rams at Southland Boys’ High School
Waikoikoi v Invercargill-Old Boys at Waikoikoi
Marist - bye