Temuka make it to final of Tweedy Cup

Temuka secured the second Tweedy Cup final spot after beating Geraldine outright over the weekend, a good comeback after being 37 runs behind on the first innings.

For Temuka it will be their second final against Celtic this season and a chance to redeem their loss in the one-day final last weekend, while for Celtic it will be their first appearance in the final since they last won the Tweedy Cup in the 2006-2007 season.

Geraldine's first innings lead put Temuka in a position of having to win outright to gain enough points to keep Star from pushing them back into third place, but with relations between the teams this season in the local derby strained at best, Geraldine were certainly not going to do Temuka any favours.

The rainfall during the week meant that preparation of the pitch had been limited and it was not long until the ball was going through the top.

Geraldine began reasonably well to be 60-2. Then a batting collapse saw them dismissed for 104.

Kevin Teahen picked up his best return of the season with the ball, taking 7-43 and leaving Temuka requiring 143 for victory.

With the pitch favouring the bowlers, the match eventually went to the wire.

At one stage Temuka were 80-6 despite an innings of 31 from Adrian Cunningham and 21 from Johnny Geddis and their chances looked grim, but a good 8th wicket partnership between Simon Attridge with 36 not out and Willie Stone (8) kept Temuka in the game, as Attridge continued his good form from the previous weekend in his new lower-order batting position.

However the tension was not abated when Stone was dismissed and No11 Nathan McNicol joined Attridge in the middle with four runs still required.

McNicol did not let the team down. A jubilant Temuka side no doubt enjoyed their trip home, with Simon Attridge and Kevin Teahen justifiably holding court.

Timaru put up a much better fight in their second innings against Star, despite battling the bowlers and the pitch, which while losing a lot of its pop from the previous week, managed to bring about the downfall of a number of batsmen.

Jeremy Lane took the most advantage of the conditions, finishing with 5-52, his best haul this season. Craig Hinton picked up 4-60.

Hayden Butler, the Timaru captain led the fightback with a fine knock of 79, an innings that would have easily been worth a hundred on a good deck. However, in the end he got himself out caught inside the long-off boundary. Josh Smallridge chimed in towards the end with 20 and Timaru with 150 had at least made Star bat a second time.

Needing only four runs to win, the Star batsmen made hard work of it, taking four overs and losing a wicket along the way, but they did finish their final match with Ashbury Park as their home ground with an outright win, and will be hoping their new ground next season at Mountainview High School brings equally rewarding results.

Despite Star's efforts with an outright win over Timaru, they remain in third and will not get the chance to improve on last season's runner-up tag.

In the Waimate-Celtic match, Waimate could be forgiven for thinking the trip to Timaru was a waste of time after they declared immediately after gaining first innings points in the hope that Celtic might at least make a game of it, since Celtic were in a position to manipulate who their final opponent would be.

Waimate had an outside chance of making the final if they could somehow dismiss Celtic a second time, or if Celtic made a sporting declaration and Waimate chased down the required runs, but Celtic set about batting for the rest of the day and the captains then agreed to call the match off early.

In hindsight, if Celtic were not interested in making a match of it, an agreement to let Waimate bat on the previous weekend and secure the seven runs required for first innings points might have saved both teams from wasting a day.

Next weekend finals in all grades will be played as another season draws to a close.

The senior final at Aorangi will be well worth a visit.

- © Fairfax NZ News