2025-26 New Zealand domestic season

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Was Van Beek injured or is he not available for red ball now? I think Oscar Jackson will be a handy all-rounder. I thought they might give former NZ under 19 player Ryan Tsorgas a go too.

He did play this year and then went to the T20 WC with the Netherlands. Probably injured or dropped on form. He's nearly 36 too, iirc.

 

[NZTailender]

Might have to find a seam bowler worthy of first-class status. I'm not sure any coach is going to transmute these beans into beanstalks.

Probably not much time left in Younghusband either if he didn't take 10 wickets and he's already 36.

Hard to see where 20 wickets are coming from without Sears or Smith.

You'd think some canny bowler in Canterbury would make the move considering there's about 50 million seamers there, who will automatically miss out if Henry, Jamieson or O'Rourke are available.

 

[Kippax]

Yeah that is quite funny how a lot of Canterbury seamers would probably sooner sign for an English county, than attempt the Bennett or LvB route. Very much schooly 'somewhere people', rather than enterprising mercenary people. Just look at the potential six-figure sums Frankie Mackay leaves on the table every year in order to keep it real.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

I'd think some of it might come back to your earlier point Kippax. If an aspiring player doesn't rate the coaching environment, then why make the move. That strength in depth at Canterbury encourages those players to fight for their spot in a way that I don't think has been the case at Wellington for a while. If you think you've got better coaching and a better chance for NZ honours where you are, why move.

 

[jcas0167]

Wellington has provided a decent springboard for national honours for a number of guys moving here in recent times including Smith. The Dom Post used to report fairly often on how Siddons or Vaughan Johnson was going as coach, but it's harder to get a sense these days.

 

[Kippax]

I'd think some of it might come back to your earlier point Kippax. If an aspiring player doesn't rate the coaching environment, then why make the move. That strength in depth at Canterbury encourages those players to fight for their spot in a way that I don't think has been the case at Wellington for a while. If you think you've got better coaching and a better chance for NZ honours where you are, why move.

Yeah just the match fees and to get match experience, that's all Wellington can offer. Maybe to not suffer from a Henry Nicholls 'doesn't travel well' fate. It'd be good if the Cantabs were preppy Mormons rather than preppy secularists; a compulsory two years in the fallen and dangerous streets of Newtown for them.

 

[Townes]

I'd think some of it might come back to your earlier point Kippax. If an aspiring player doesn't rate the coaching environment, then why make the move. That strength in depth at Canterbury encourages those players to fight for their spot in a way that I don't think has been the case at Wellington for a while. If you think you've got better coaching and a better chance for NZ honours where you are, why move.

Wellington traditionally produces good seamers though, so that doesn't seem to be where the main problem lies. Instead, taking out the great imports (Crowe, Jones, Bell, Twose, Fleming, Papps etc), the issue has been far more with the batting, as it has been this season. My memory may be faulty here, but I can't remember Wgtn producing a top-class batter between Bruce Edgar and Tom Blundell, i.e., the best part of 40 years.

The reason became obvious when I lived in Wgtn for 5 years a couple of decades ago – the tracks the kids were made to play on were truly awful. Even, in fact especially, the rubber duckies. On some, a bouncer was a ball that bounced. While others were so fiery that military medium trundlers looked like Lillee and Thomson at the WACA. Even Bradman would have struggled to learn the art of batting on those decks. The advent of Ravindra and Robinson suggest things may have improved in the last 15 years, but I wonder.

 

[Kippax]

I think the development of elite junior bats isn't quite as hampered by the climate and pitches as before. The all-weather training centre with 20 grass wickets and 4 artificials at Wellington College should be good for the production of some better Wellington batting names.

 

[Kippax]

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

I think the development of elite junior bats isn't quite as hampered by the climate and pitches as before. The all-weather training centre with 20 grass wickets and 4 artificials at Wellington College should be good for the production of some better Wellington batting names.

I'm still amazed that anyone playing regularly in the Hutt Valley can play any back foot shots at all, given how little any grass decks bounce there.

 

[Kippax]

Yeah there are all sorts of annoying misalignments in the pipeline to Wellington becoming a good producer of its own talent that are quite hard to address.

A lot of our best juniors are going to have potentially very good wristy and drives-orientated batting, yet the home ground is going to have pace and bounce you can trust and strongly suits those powerful square of the wicket, like Nicholls or Blundell.

Guys who just wear the indoor centres out like men possessed are at least going to enjoy it coming on and will have decent back-foot games, but might be prone to airily nicking off or getting castled driving on the up.

 

[RMBolton]

According to Margot Butcher's write up on the NZC page that is the first time Otago have won three FC games in a row since 2012/13. What a difference O'Connor made to that side. Would have been a bit of a fairytale ending if they had won the Shield. Great that Todd was able to come in and show his class in a pressure situation. I wonder if Georgeson is inching towards higher honours along with Chu.

I don't know what happened to Wellington this season. A few of the batsmen struggled in the New Year.

Congrats to Canterbury. Nicholls was so prolific he deserved some silverware.

View attachment 53176

Whatever happens in the rest of Nips' career, he can proudly say that he captained a Canterbury side that won the Plunket Shield, & he led the way from the front like any good captain.

Look at him. It's like seeing Wags with the Shield last year. Heck, seeing Gurrey with the HBJ had me bawling my eyes out.

 

[Skyliner]

 

[ataraxia]

Plunket Shield side of the tournament:

1 Brad Schmulian (717r @ 55.15; 8w @ 16.62)
2 Henry Cooper (643r @ 45.92)
3 Henry Nicholls* (870r @ 96.66; 12c)
4 Matt Boyle (554r @ 50.36; 6w @ 39.16)
5 Lachie Stackpole (667r @ 51.30, SR 94.20)
6 Max Chu + (585r @ 53.18; 39c, 1st)
7 Luke Georgeson (455r @ 56.87; 20w @ 33.15; 12c)
8 Simon Keene (565r @ 51.36; 25w @ 28.00; 11c)
9 Thomas O'Connor (129r @ 32.25; 27w @ 14.40)
10 Tim Pringle (31w @ 28.03)
11 Ray Toole (35w @ 23.57)

Loads of promising talents. No idea why Harrison was picked over Georgeson for the A tour.

 

[Immenso]

Plunket Shield side of the tournament:

1 Brad Schmulian (717r @ 55.15; 8w @ 16.62)
2 Henry Cooper (643r @ 45.92)
3 Henry Nicholls* (870r @ 96.66; 12c)
4 Matt Boyle (554r @ 50.36; 6w @ 39.16)
5 Lachie Stackpole (667r @ 51.30, SR 94.20)
6 Max Chu + (585r @ 53.18; 39c, 1st)
7 Luke Georgeson (455r @ 56.87; 20w @ 33.15; 12c)
8 Simon Keene (565r @ 51.36; 25w @ 28.00; 11c)
9 Thomas O'Connor (129r @ 32.25; 27w @ 14.40)
10 Tim Pringle (31w @ 28.03)
11 Ray Toole (35w @ 23.57)

Loads of promising talents. No idea why Harrison was picked over Georgeson for the A tour.

Only 1 and a half players from the Spring 'A' tours makes your team.

Keene (plus Boyle as the half, as deemed no good enough for the second tour).

Those guys really ran out of steam.

 

[Kippax]

Ran out of tarmac and into some lush grass, more like.

 

[Immenso]

Ran out of tarmac and into some lush grass, more like.

Maybe.

But, the reason they were in those A teams in the first place was because they put up enough performances on this nz grass, last season, that you are saying is too difficult for them.

 

[Kippax]

Yeah I really felt this was a bit of a once in 25 years, Andrew Schwass and Brent Hefford type of season.

 

[Kippax]

A Ford Trophy wicket-takers list headlined by Josh Clarkson and James Hartshorn, just wacky stuff.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

A Ford Trophy wicket-takers list headlined by Josh Clarkson and James Hartshorn, just wacky stuff.

Hartshorn did bowl a couple of top quality spells tbf. If I could be bothered, I'd look at his mean vs. median wickets per innings to see if those couple of times I saw him bowl decently were likely outliers.