Adrian Dale: Cornwall Head Coach on the clash against Parnell, Jeff Crowe Cup

The Jeff Crowe Cup has kicked off in Auckland, and there’s a massive game set for this weekend.  

Unbeaten to start the season, Cornwall is taking on their neighbours in a key early season clash.  

Adrian Dale is the head coach of Cornwall, and he joined D'Arcy to discuss the game and the season so far. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldgrave from News Talk SEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Let's going to an ex guest. Now we're talking a
bit of local Auckland cricket. There's a Jeff Crow Cup
is on. It is round three Parnell Cricket Club taking
on Cornwall Cricket Club. It's at Cornwall Park. One starts
at eleven o'clock and we're going to go now to
Adrian Dale, who coaches the Cornwall Cricket Club Premiere team.

(00:34):
It's the game and it's a neighborhood. It's a derby
as well. I suppose you'd say good morning Adrian. You'd
be pretty fizz for this one.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Absolutely, Darcy, good morning. It's going to be a crack
of day, the sun's out and it's all sat for
an absolutely beauty of a game.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
So this is in the Jeff Crow Cup. Just talk
to us about the relevance of this competition that people
outside of the Auckland region don't really know what it is.
But how much weight does this carry?

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yeah? Look, then Premier cricket in Auckland. There's a separate
sort of two day, one day and T twenty competition.
The Jeff cro Cup is a prestigious sort of fifty
over one day competition. The sixteen Premier clubs are split
into two lots of eight and Cornwall and Panel are
two teams in the top eight going head to ahead.
And it's it's certainly because obviously Jeff Crow's association with Cornwall.

(01:22):
For US guys, it's a particularly important important date.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Probably wouldn't call it stats, but there's some pretty impressive
players on your side. I think you've got a Dutch International,
You've got to cut of aces floating around Hong Kong
International as well. Is it representative of the Jeff Crow Cup?
Across the board they're all very strong teams.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
Absolutely they are. It's yeah, you're dead right. This is
my third year coach in this Premier competition for Cornwall
and I've been absolutely you know, I'm really heartened by
the quality of the competition across the grade. You know,
week in week out you just come across these super
strong players, super good games of cricket, normally play with

(02:06):
good dumpires on good decks and the competition, you know,
the Auckland club cricket scene is I believe, very very
strong and a great breeding ground for future races.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well, what's the actual deck like and what's the airtfield like?
Are we looking good quality here, Adrian?

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Yeah, look it's Cornall's a beautiful ground. It's a great
place to come and watching. People are in the area
sort of today. The deck is a fresh deck for
this game. It looks you know, it looks hard should
sort of suit the sort of steam bowlers probably first
up because it is such a fresh deck. And the
outfield at Cornwall, well, the outfield Cornwall literally was the
number two outfield that Eden Park before it got sort

(02:43):
of transposed from there across the Cornwall. It's like a
carpet super fast outfield and it is like really a
first class ground.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Do you have to wrangle the cows off the deck
before you start playing?

Speaker 3 (02:56):
We've had a couple of escapees at time, but it's
pretty uncommon.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Looking at your team, I means in a couple of
players is in it in particular that we should keep
an eye at if we wander on down the morning
to watch.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, look, we've got some yes, some super cricketers on
the show. From our perspective, you know, we've probably opened
up to tomorrow with Sam Rassing and Matt Gibson are
both aces contracted crick bowlers, so that would be opening
the attackle on with Liam Wheeler. We got Taja Nada
Lemirou probably butchered that name. He's got about three for us.
He's playing for Cornwall in preparation for the T twenty
wheel Cup for Holland that's starting in sort of January,

(03:30):
you know, sidesh Dixon and other aces sort of contracted
player we'll be batting up top for us. Yeah, and
we've got some super sort of young local boys as well,
including the Raman Heckmaut who's a leg sminner exit New
Zealand and nineteen player who is getting a stack for
the wickets at the moment.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
The closest, sorry, the closest the competition, so you you're
there thereabouts. Where else is the strength in Auckland cricket
at at this level, Adrian.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Look, I mean these sort of central clubs are pretty strong.
You know. On the shore there's a few Attacker Poona
and particularly doing well at moment. I think they're actually
unbeaten across all competitions this season. Sort of out west
is probably suburbs, they're sort of powerhouse there you've got
howick out east, you know, and then sort of down
south you've got sort of Papatoi and clubs like that.

(04:19):
East Coast base is super strong as well, so you know,
there's lots and lots of sort of really really really
good teams out there. You know, it's obviously it's club cricket, right,
so it varies a fair bit each year, but those
seem to be the size that seem to do consistently
pretty well.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
And just a quick explainer on the Jeff Crow Cup itself.
What round robin table stuff?

Speaker 3 (04:39):
How does it work? Yeah, so everyone plays, there's tops,
there's eight teams, so everyone plays, you know, seven games,
everyone plays everybody else. This is round three. You know,
we're lucky enough to have two wins in our first
couple of games, so we want to sort of keep
that sort of momentum going. And then after those round
seven the top four play semi final and final. But
on the other side, because there's two you know, there's

(05:01):
a top eight in the bottom mate. If you if
you finish on the wrong side bottom, then you'll get
relegated as well. So there's always something to play for
in these competitions.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, and don't underestimate the power of Newland suburbs. I
drove past the park on the way to work and
all I could smell was fresh cut grass. If that's
not the best smell of summer, I don't know what is.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
Absolutely mate, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Hey go Hey, Adriene, thanks so much for joining the program.
Go well, play hard, play tough, play fair and enjoy yourself.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
Thanks Darcie, I appreciate it. Cool.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
For more from the All Sport Breakfast with Darcy Watergrave,
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