North Otago Cricket

The North Otago Cricket Association was founded in 1899 for the growing interest of cricket in the district. The NOCA is now over 100 years old and the cricket is as strong as ever, being a recent holder of the Hawke Cup, and the "Oamaru Cricket Club" being the third oldest cricket club in New Zealand.
History.
In 1864 the Oamaru Cricket Club was established to cover the growing interest of cricket in the North Otago area. The Oamaru club played many outside matches in their first years including matches against Australia and England. In 1892 the "Waitaki Cricket Association" was formed to regulate and manage cricket in the Ashburton, South Canterbury and North Otago areas, however this did not last long because there was no way to maintain unity, and it had been impossible to establish a club competition. It was a match against South Canterbury in 1896 that got people interested in forming another cricket association in the area, and in 1899 the "North Otago Cricket Association" was formed.
In February 1956, when led by then New Zealand Captain and local player John Reid, it played a West Indian team containing Alf Valentine, OG Smith and Sir Garfield Sobers. Since then North Otago has played in five Hawke Cup challenges (successful in its last in 2016) and taken part in the Southern Hawke Cup Elimination Series against Southland, Otago Country, South Canterbury and Mid Canterbury. It was a recent holder of the Hawke Cup, beating Manawatu in the last challenge of the 2009-2010 season. Then again reclaiming it during the 2015-2016 season beating Buller by 133 runs with an exceptional performance from Francois Mostert, taking 13 wickets in the match.
Senior Teams.
Union are the current Senior Club Champions after finishing at the top of the table, the final was due to be played against Albion but had to be abandoned due to the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak.
2010 Hawke Cup Challenge.
The following traveled to Palmerston North for the successful Hawke Cup Challenge against Manawatu in 2010
After winning the toss and electing to bat North Otago looked to be in trouble in the first innings being 116-9 but a record breaking 10th wicket partnership of 91 between Duncan Drew and David Sewell bought some respectability to the score. North Otago all out for 207 with Duncan Drew top scoring with 102, notching up his second century at Hawke Cup level and Sewell 37 not out. Bryan Templeman took 6-56 for the home side. At the end of the first day, the game was even with Manawatu 61-3 at stumps and just after lunch during the second day North Otago had a 48 run lead when the home side was bowled out for 159. Ben (3-29) and David Sewell (3-50) were the main wicket takers with three wickets each. When stumps was called at the end of the second day North Otago was in a strong position, being 138-3 with a lead of 186. the inning was completed just after lunch on the third day and North Otago had 262 on the board to set Manawatu 311 off 58 overs for an outright victory. Darren Broom scored the second century of the game, combining with Drew for an 83 run partnership for the 4th wicket. For Manawatu J Cunningham took the a five wicket bag, finishing with 5-99 of his 33 overs. Manawatu started aggressively in their innings looking to put North Otago under pressure, however with wickets constantly falling and good partnerships failing to materialize they fell short by 159 runs to retain the Hawke Cup. Once again David Sewell picked up three wickets finishing with 3-31 off 8 overs while captain Chris Smith took 3-23 including the final wicket. North Otago victors in its fourth Hawke Cup Challenge and for the first time in the 99-year history of the cup, holders of the Hawke Cup.
Current Squad.
The following is the Hawke Cup playing squad for the 2019-20 season. 