Brian Mollet
The Geckos cricket team has a long and proud history dating back to when Nicholas Shand used to browbeat, bribe or blackmail a bewildered-looking bunch of journalists and drinking buddies onto the old pitch, most startled to be out of bed so early.
There they would unerringly receive a resounding drubbing from the wily Wanganui team (Wilsons Creek)and indeed it took many years for the Geckos to crack it for their first win, an occasion that caused weeklong celebrations.
So to suggest that the Geckos would go through the round robin of the Shand series undefeated would have had people seriously doubting your sanity and flushing any stray medications in your medicine cabinet down the toilet.
But the Geckos are now five from five in the Shand series after accounting for the Lennox Ripstarters on Sunday, who won the toss and chose to bat.
A blustery breeze had the new ball swirling and dipping around and James, Trent, Mick, and Mal all bagged two scalps apiece.
In a rousing performance in the field the Geckos stuck to every ball like farmers friends on a woolly sock and bundling out the power hitting Lennox lineup of Gaz, Scoot, Beezo, Barnsey, and Ed for a surprisingly lightweight 98.
Opener Rossco and the evergreen Adeha (31no) then set about chipping the target score down to size and stumps were drawn in mid- afternoon when team stalwart Peter Wynn-Moylan clipped up the winning runs with a good eight-and-a-half overs to spare.
The Geckos now own top spot and their final’s opponents will be decided by the match between Main Arm and the Byron Full-Tossers, who have to win well to avoid the Gecko juggernaught.
