Following on from last season's pre-season representative hit-out in the Western Bay of Plenty, between Bay of Plenty and Hawke's Bay, at Labour weekend – this year's edition, will have an inaugural trophy which recognizes a cricket family with strong connections to both provinces.

The Bay of Plenty and Hawkes Bay Cricket Associations, have decided that the representative warm-up matches should become a regular fixture and to cement the games in their annual calendar, the Howell Family Cup will be on the line.

The Howell family has had strong cricket connections with both Hawkes Bay and Bay of Plenty.

John Howell, who was the NZ Cricket national coaching director for nearly 20 years, played for Hawke's Bay in Hawke Cup and Central Districts regional competition. In the early 2000's, John moved north to the Western Bay of Plenty to establish the John Howell Cricket Academy

John's two sons in Llorne and Glynn also played major association cricket. Llorne, went on to play for the Black Caps in 12 ODI's twenty years ago and played 38 games in the Bay of Plenty uniform captaining the side in the 2008/09 and 2009/10 seasons.

There will be a changing of the guard at the Tauranga Domain, with Joe Carter picking up the skipper's baton for the current season, from long-time Bay captain Peter Drysdale. While RPO Drysdale will no longer have the captains asterisk in the scorebook, on the weekend, he will be long remembered as the most successful all-time Bay of Plenty Hawke Cup captain.

Drysdale led his troops to nine Hawke Cup Direct Challenge victories, from the Bay's 16 Hawke Cup wins since the first success against Hawkes Bay in 1986.

The weekend encounters at the Tauranga Domain, will kick off with two Twenty 20 games on Saturday followed by a one-day game the following day.

BOPCA Convener of Selectors Tai Bridgman-Raison says 'The weekend's cricket will serve as number of purposes and is the ideal preparation as a lead-in to the men's representative season.

'It will be a chance to try different combinations and roles among the playing group, as we look ahead to the ND T20 tournament in December."

The two provinces have a representative history through Hawke Cup cricket that stretches back to 1986. The two Bays have met on five HC Direct Challenge occasions, with Bay of Plenty emerging victorious four times.

'Hawke's Bay always brings a strong side, so it will be challenging cricket which is exactly what we want from a pre-season hit out."

'The selectors have gone with a mixture of experience and youth as we look to develop depth in the squad."

Bay of Plenty XI's v Hawkes Bay @ Tauranga Domain – 20/21 October 2018

Saturday (20 October)

Twenty 20 Number One –10am start

Twenty 20 Number Two – 1pm start

Sunday (21 October) One-Day (50 over per team) – 10am start

Bay of Plenty XI's v Hawkes Bay

Saturday (Twenty 20 x two)

Jono Boult, Sean Davey, Joe Carter (captain) Peter Drysdale, Brett Hampton, Henry Collier, Tim Pringle, Ben Musgrave, Blair McKenzie, Dominic Crombie, Iman Singh, Chris Atkinson.

Sunday (Fifty Over)

Stephen Crossan, Henry Collier, Peter Drysdale, Joe Carter (captain) Ben Musgrave, Tim Pringle, Ben Pomare, Fergus Lellman, Dan Smith, Chris Atkinson, Bharat Popli , Brett Hampton.