Cricketers celebrate long-awaited title

Enjoying their success... North Shore Cricket Club won the Auckland two-day competition for the first time in 35 years, with a game to spare, but held off opening the champagne (above) until the Hedley Howarth trophy arrived after the side’s final match against Parnell at the North Shore Cricket ground on 25 March. It lost that last the game, but the result did nothing to dampen the celebrations.

Hands on the silverware... North Shore captain Will Clarke with the Hedley Howarth trophy awarded to the winners of the Auckland premier two-day competition

Shady seat salutes Shore stalwart Sinclair’s sterling service

A park bench complete with plaque will be installed in a shady spot overlooking the Devonport Domain pitch in memory of North Shore cricketing great Barry Sinclair.

The cricket club (with family support) asked for the seat, saying it would recognise his “enormous contribution.”

Sinclair, who died last year, aged 85, played 21 test matches for New Zealand between 1962 and 1968, three of them as captain. He scored three test centuries. He was considered a worldclass batsman of the day and a top fielder. Sinclair had a long representative career, playing first for Wellington and then Northern Districts. After moving to Auckland in the early 1970s, he became a North Shore Cricket Club stalwart, first as a player, then as a manager, administrator, selector, coach and volunteer. He was the club’s past patron and also the inaugural patron of the New Zealand Cricket Players Association.