NOTES from SLIP
Wellington’s Devon Conway is quite some player. He plundered 327 not out from 352 balls against Canterbury at the Basin Reserve earlier this week and broke all kinds of records in doing so.
He did not get the big one, though. Bert Sutcliffe (385) still owns the record for the highest individual firstclass score made in New Zealand. Former Otago player Michael Bracewell played a critical role in helping preserve that wonderful slice of history when he declared his side’s innings closed at 525 for seven. Good on ya Braces.
Fun fact. October is historically a drier month in Dunedin than December, January and February. But it was still a punt to schedule a firstclass game here so early. This week’s Plunket Shield game against Auckland at the University of Otago Oval is the earliest a match has been scheduled in the city. The opening day never got under way due to a damp outfield and yet more rain. And there was no play yesterday either.
The forecast is not that promising today but tomorrow is looking great. It will be too late by then, of course. For every day lost to poor weather, New Zealand Cricket burns through $9,900 just in player payments. Toss in the catering bill (about $2200), the wages for the five match officials (up to another couple of grand), ground hire (perhaps $1500 ) and a few other incidentals and you are looking at the best part of $14,000 each day. That does not include accommodation costs, flights or wages for the team management. Four days of cricket probably costs $80,000 plus. No doubt it would have been more expensive to host the game in Central Otago but it seldom rains in Alexandra. Actually, it gets an average of 28.7mm in October. According to the Met Service data, Dunedin got 31mm on October 11 alone.
Olivia Gain got into some tremendous form before the Sparks season gets under way later this month. She swatted 104 from 39 deliveries against Southland in the Otago districts under19 tournament staged in Invercargill on Labour Weekend. She blasted 11 fours and six sixes before retiring to give someone else an opportunity at the crease.
Bit of trivia for your Friday. Who scored a century in his 100th firstclass game while on firstclass debut for Otago?