Congratulations to the inaugural Combined Districts team, made up of Hawke Cup cricketers from North Otago, Southland and Otago Country, and a couple of Otago Volts players to fill the gaps.

The team played a 3-day match against Otago A in Dunedin earlier in the week, though any A players who were from the districts, played for the districts - who affectionately nicknamed themselves “The Dungbeetles”, supposedly due to the rag-tag nature of the team, coming from 3 different Districts. Despite the district differences, and the name, in true country style, the team gelled as if they’d been playing together forever - on and off the field; it was really great to see!

The match went the full 4 innings, with the districts team just getting home after a fight back from Otago A that nearly saw them take it away. See the full scorecard in the following link https://www.playhq.com/.../otago-a.../game-centre/14d61adc

We’d like to say a special thanks to Otago Cricket for coming up with the concept, for providing the venue and all the support around the match, even with the successful Sparks final being played on the main oval on day one.

Thanks to the Otago Volts boys who came in and embraced “The Dungies” and contributed greatly to the occasion!

Thanks also to the Otago A players and management who gave up their time and effort to support this match. You gave our Hawke Cup players an opportunity to test their skills at a higher level, and to rub shoulders and learn from other experienced first class and A level cricketers; for this we are very grateful. We hope this match will become a regular fixture in the calendar, and we hope it puts even more value on becoming a successful Hawke Cup cricketer; you never know where it might lead you.

The team was:

1. T Cumberland - Otago Country
2. N Brown - Southland
3. A Hart - Southland
4. L Johnson – North Otago/Otago Volts
5. H Bogue - Otago Country
6. O White – Otago Volts
7. J. Gibson – Otago Volts
8. C Jackson (c) – Otago Country
9. J Smith - North Otago
10. T O’Connor – Otago Country
11. B McCall - Southland
12. S Niluminder - Southland
13. B Kay – North Otago