Hamilton went to the head of the points table with an innings and 77 runs defeat of Bay of Plenty at Galloway Park.

 Anurag Verma, showing that he is overcoming long term injury problems, knocked the top off the BOP batting line up. With good support from the other Hamilton pace bowlers, BOP were all out for 67, an innings that occupied just 28 overs. Only Bharat Popli [19] managed to reach double figures.

Hamilton found few demons in the pitch and amassed 324 runs. Keir Bettley and Anish Desai laid the basis and Joe and Freddie Walker hammered home the big advantage for Hamilton. Joe Walker's 79 included 7 fours and 2 sixes, and Freddie's half century included 6 fours and 4 sixes. Best of the BOP bowlers was teenager Dominic Crombie, with 4/39  in his Fergus Hickey debut.

BOP fared marginally better second time round, but still came up short of a competitive total. Most batsmen got starts, but failed to kick on. Henry Collier showed some resolve, but he was left unbeaten on 43. Remarkably, the second longest innings came from D.A. Smith the number eleven, who batted  87 minutes for his dozen runs. The spin bowling Walkers finished fine doubles by taking the majority of the wickets.

Match Details: Hamilton 324 [K.Bettley 43, A.Desai 49, J.Walker 79, F.Walker 59, J.Devane 25, D.Crombie  4/39, B.Popli 2/29, C.Atkinson 2/65] defeated BOP 67 [B.Popli 19, A.Verma 4/16, J.Baker 2/11, J.Brown 3/20] and 169 [B.Popli 27, H.Collier 43 not out, J.Walker 4/52, F.Walker 3/24].

In the other match, at Cobham Oval, visitors Waikato Valley took first innings points over Northland by a margin of 59 runs.

Batting first, WV achieved maximum batting points before declaring at 300 for the loss of 9 wickets. The innings was built around the efforts of Dillon Kelliher and Girvacques de Jager, with good support from Zak and Jake Gibson. Kyran Dill and Tom Herman both took 3 wickets for Northland, and there were tidy bowling spells from two spinners at opposite ends of the age spectrum, ex Blackcap Bruce Martin and Hamish Kidd.

In reply Northland battled hard, but the loss of Henry Cooper when he looked set was crucial. Experienced campaigners Ben Hyde and Ian Page gave Northland hope, but their efforts and those from Caleb Boswell- Smith and Kidd, were not enough and Northland fell well short of their target. Reo Sakurano-Thomas impressed with 4 wickets from 19 overs including 10 maidens.

Match Details: WV 300/9 declared [ D. Kelliher 83, G.de Jager 79, Z.Gibson 37, J.Gibson 26, K.Dill 3/57, T.Herman 3/47, B.Martin 2/39] led on the first innings over Northland 241 [H.Cooper 39, B.Hyde 58, I.Page 43, H.Kidd 33, R.Sakurano-Thomas 4/38, Z.Gibson 2/50,S.Sistern-Tate 2/53]

Round 4 this coming weekend will see Waikato Valley play Hamilton and Counties Manukau play Bay of Plenty. Current points : Hamilton [played 3] 21, Northland [3] 16, WV [2] 15, CM [2]8, BOP [2] 7.