The Pink Report

Landslide At The Basin

The first outright victory of the season is on the board for the Northern Knights after a demolition job on Wellington’s shaky-looking line-up. The Firebirds finished last in the Plunket Shield and men’s one-day comp earlier this year, and second to last in the HRV Cup, which can’t help but demoralise the troops. New captain Grant Elliott showed the way in scoring the only century of the match; problem is only the fabulously named Harry Kenneth Perrott Boam, late of the New Zealand under-19s, was able to follow with an impressive and frustrating, from the Knights’ point of view, late order 90. No one else seemed to know what to do against young left-armer Trent Boult, who picked up a five-for.

Contrast that to the Knights’ first innings. Grant Bradburn must have told the team that whoever didn’t score 50 would have to walk home. Brad Wilson (91), Michael Parlane (61), James Marshall (72), Scott Styris (51), Joey Yovich (77) and Graeme Aldridge (49) pushed the Firebirds deeper and deeper into the ground, squashed them some more in the Firebirds’ second innings and were left chasing just 72 to claim maximum points. Very nearly an innings defeat for the hosts, and all this without Kane Williamson or BJ Watling. It was a solid team effort that illustrated the squad’s serious depth.

The Knights ride on to their first home game of the season next week in Whangarei, but for many of the squad it’s still another week living out of a suitcase. People often comment that, of all the associations, Northern Districts and Central Districts teams develop a strong sense of camaraderie. It’s been that way for decades and seems to grow from the nature of the geography: city-based teams pack up and go home at the end of each day of cricket; the districts players get to spend a lot more time together within their own borders.

Tributes have kept rolling over the week for Joey Yovich, whose 100th first-class Knights game certainly turned out to have a fitting result (no pressure, team). I liked what ND old boy Mark Bailey had to say: “Joey’s one of those people you enjoy playing with. That’s why ND has been so successful - we have so many good people and you just feel like playing for them, and they play for you. It’s always a good feeling when you get together with your mates in ND from all areas of the district - and you can tell the team is like that at the moment.”

Mark also recalled that when Joey had his wisdom teeth out, he turned down anaesthetic. “He’s a strong-minded fella!” It turns out Joey’s also high on the shortlist of prime suspects whenever a practical joke has been successfully sprung anywhere in the environs of the team. From barley sugars in the shower head so your hair goes all sticky to possibly earlier than usual hotel wake-up calls for the coach, team-mates all had a store of Joey stories. Robbie Hart still smiles remembering the conclusion of their end of season game at the Basin one year: “He took off a boot and gave it to Billy Bowden to hold, and bowled an ‘apple’!”

Speaking of Mark Bailey, it’s obviously been a stressful 10 days for our kiwifruit grower friends in the Bay of Plenty after the discovery of the PSA canker. Mark has been putting in very long days at kiwifruit crisis ground zero in Te Puke as his company is contracted to MAF to deal with the urgent, on-the-ground control of these kinds of biosecurity incursions in New Zealand.

As we’ve seen with varroa bee mites, didymo, Asian paper wasps and a host of other unwanted organisms that have got through our borders, unerring scrutiny of what we bring into the country is crucial, as once a pest species digs in and spreads out, it’s practically impossible to eradicate. In the case of didymo, a single cell on unwashed fly-fishing tackle is all it may have taken to have introduced the American “rock snot” to the South Island, where it now coats and gags formerly pristine rivers with green-brown slime. The same may be true for the PSA canker and Mark says it’s been heartbreaking witnessing the impact on orchardists. If only outright victories were as easy to come by in that sphere as well.