Ashburton College’s Ben Niles checks the progress of his shot before running between the wickets. Photo Jaime Pitt-MacKayAshburton College’s First XI found something to celebrate this week, despite finding the going tough in the top grade of the Canterbury secondary schools’ cricket competition.

The side was convincingly beaten by Christchurch Boys’ High School at the weekend, amassing 112/9 – a total quickly and aggressively chased down by the national schoolboy champions with the loss of just one wicket.

However the game did yield some positives for the team.

Captain Will Graham started the match needing 14 runs to reach a 1000-run milestone for the college – he passed the mark easily with a tally of 25, beaten on the day only by Ben Niles, who top-scored with 28.

Graham becomes the eighth player in the college club’s history to reach 1000 runs, joining Jack Meyrick (1243), Matt Tait (1219), Kieran Hunt (1124), current team-mate Tom Ravenscroft (1103), Ben Mably (1083), Kurt Polson (1073) and Michael Burton (1054).

Graham’s tally is at 1011 with three games remaining in the season.

The seam bowler is also in the club’s top all-time 10 wicket-takers, currently sharing a career tally of 82 wickets with team-mate Gareth Hunt, who claimed the sole wicket on Saturday.

Graham’s star continued to rise this week when he was presented with the Noel Hoskin Cup for cricket at the Year 13 prizegiving on Monday, along with a cricketing scholarship to Lincoln University.

He was also selected in the Canterbury Under 19 team to play at the national age-group tournament at Lincoln on December 4-12.

Former Methven player Richard Turpie, who now attends Christ’s College, was also named in the side.

AshColl is back at the Ashburton Domain this Saturday for what is likely to be their last home game of the season, against North West.

On Sunday they travel to the Willows club at Loburn for their annual match against the cricket institution.

By Linda Clarke © The Ashburton Guardian - 7 November 2017