The most prestigious piece of silverware in Bay of Plenty club cricket will be held aloft in triumph on Sunday by one of the four teams who have fought their way to the Williams Cup semi-finals to be played today.


Mount Maunganui is one of the teams vying for the Williams Cup this weekend.

The Williams Cup was contested as a challenge trophy for many years before becoming the present-day symbol of Baywide premier club cricket superiority.

First played for in the 1932/33 season, the initial winner was Rotorua City, before Ngongotaha won the silverware in the following two seasons.

The semi-final at Blake Park renews one of the most robust rivalries in Baywide club cricket. Top qualifier Platinum Pacific Reclad Mount Maunganui will be at home to defending Williams Cup titleholder Element IMF Cadets.

Last season the two teams that dominated Bay of Plenty Premier club cricket met on five occasions with Cadets edging ahead, winning three of the encounters including the Williams Cup, defeating Cadets in the final.

However, this season, the honours have been with Mount Maunganui on the two times that the archrivals have met. On the first meeting, Mount Maunganui bowled Cadets out for just 75 after posting what looked to be a meager total of 98.

In the Williams Cup round robin match-up in December, the Mount set a target of 224, then restricted Cadets to 215/9 in a battle that went to the wire.

Tauranga Boys' College, which claimed the prestigious trophy in 2009, qualified in second place, to earn a home semi-final against East Bay United at Nicholson Field.

The Tauranga Boys' side has become one of the top cricket schools in the country in the new millennium numbering a Gillette Cup in the silverware that the school has won.

East Bay United are the ‘newbies' on the block, being established just three seasons ago. However, in the short time that the team has represented the Eastern Bay of Plenty in club cricket they have won two premier trophies.

In their first season they won the Tauranga Premier Twenty20 crown, while last season they relieved Tauranga Boys' of the BOP Cricket iTCo Challenge Shield.

The Eastern Bay team has met the Tauranga students on just one occasion this season; after the Williams Cup round robin match was rained out.

On the first day of the cricket season in October, East Bay United prevailed on the artificial wicket at Nicholson Field. After the students were dismissed for 157, East Bay United got home with five wickets in hand.

The victors from the semi-finals will have little time to celebrate with the Williams Cup final being played at the Bay of Plenty Cricket Oval at Blake Park, Mount Maunganui, on Sunday.

While East Bay United is contesting Williams Cup post section cricket for the first time – the other three contenders have experienced the joy of lifting aloft the Williams Cup in victory.

Cadets are the real heavyweight of the Williams Cup in the last two decades, winning the symbol of Baywide club cricket superiority on nine occasions since 1995.

The Mount Club that can traces its roots back to the 1920s has won the cup three times, while Tauranga Boys' experienced the joys of a Williams Cup win two years ago.

Williams Cup Semi-Final Draw 22 January 2011

Mount Maunganui v Cadets, Blake Park; Tauranga Boys College v East Bay United, Nicholson Field.

Williams Cup Final Sunday: 23 January at BOP Cricket Oval, Mount Maunganui

Williams Cup 2011 Points Table (Final)

Mount Maunganui 48, Tauranga Boys College 45, Cadets 30, East Bay United 30, Greerton 27, Te Puke 27, Eastern Pirates 21, Central 21, Rotorua BHS 18, BOP Indians 3.

Williams Cup 2010 Results

Williams Cup Final

Mount Maunganui 144 lost to Element IMF Cadets 146/5

Williams Cup 2010 Semi-Finals

Mount Maunganui 198 defeated Eastern Pirates 177, Cadets 254/8 defeated Tauranga Boys College 135.

Williams Cup History

Cadets – 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2010.

Mount Maunganui – 1988, 1992, 2008.

Tauranga Boys College – 2009.

East Bay United – Nil.