Palmerston North Boys’ High School 1st XI Cricket Development Tour of Perth and South Africa September/October 2018
PNBHS - A CRICKETING SCHOOL
Palmerston North Boys’ High School (PNBHS) is one of the largest cricket clubs in New Zealand with over 200 students playing cricket at various levels, fielding 18 teams. Its four top elevens compete in the Manawatu Cricket Association’s adult competitions with the 1st XI being in the Premier One Grade, the 2nd XI in Premier Two, the 3rd XI and the 4th XI in Premier Three. PNBHS is by far the biggest contributing school to the Manawatu Cricket Association’s Premier One Grade and Senior Men’s representative teams. Well over half of all the cricketers in these teams are either students at, or old boys of PNBHS.
Because of the substantial student interest and involvement in cricket at Palmerston North Boys’ High School, the school has embarked on a programme of offering its promising players the opportunity of extending their cricketing abilities and skills by going on a pre-season overseas tour every three years. Each tour has been set up to give young cricketers the chance to play up to ten games in the three weeks of the September/October holidays. The benefits of such international exchanges for each student have been immense, not only in terms of their cricket, but also their personal development.
The first tour was made in 1984 to Queensland, and subsequent tours have been to Queensland and Singapore (1987); Queensland and Fiji (1990); Queensland, Northern Territory and Singapore (1993); Queensland, New South Wales and Singapore (1996); Singapore and South Africa (1998) followed by repeat tours to South Africa in 2001, 2004 and 2007. In 2009 and 2010 the school toured Queensland, Australia. They went to India and South Africa in 2012 and most recently, India and Sri Lanka in 2015.
This year’s tour will be the school’s fourteenth overseas tour and we will visit Western Australia and South Africa. The previous tours have had an enormous impact on cricket in the school and on our competitiveness, not only against local association sides, but also our traditional annual rivals of Napier Boys’ High School, St Patrick’s College, Wellington College, Auckland Grammar School and in the Gillette Cup and Super 8 Competitions.
Achievements
In 1990, the 1st XI were the winners of the inaugural New Zealand Gillette Cup National Champion Secondary School Cricket Competition. The 1st XI has continued to achieve in this very prestigious knockout competition by placing second in 1993; third in 1994; second in 1995; they were the winners in 1998 following the very successful tour of Singapore and South Africa and placed second in 1999 and 2000. The 1st XI won the Gillette Cup again in 2004 were placed third in 2006, 2010 and 2012. In 2015 and 2017, they placed fifth. In 2018, the team has again qualified as one of the top 6 cricket secondary schools in the country, making it the 18th time the school has appeared in the Gillette Cup finals. (Renamed the NZ Secondary Schools Boys’ 1st XI Cup).
Palmerston North Boys’ High School Old Boys who have played for New Zealand include: Chester Holland, Norm Gallichan, Geoff Rabone, Noel Harford, Don Beard, Bryan Yuile, Vic Pollard, David O’Sullivan, Derek Stirling, Ian Smith, Matthew Sinclair, Jamie How and Jacob Oram. Ross Taylor, Adam Milne and George Worker are currently playing for New Zealand.
TOUR PARTY
ITINERARY
TOUR BOOKLET
Click on the image below to view the 1st XI Cricket Development Tour 2018 Booklet and read more about the Tour!