Big news coming out of the Bulls, yet another Canadian Bulls player has reached a career defining milestone this season.

Pentland has had a cracking season despite the team collapsing around him and NT teammate Kingsberry. He finished with 73 wickets (ODI, cup and NT games), topping the Canadian bowlers for most wickets in the year. In doing so, he also beat the Bulls team record for most wickets in a season, his own, which was 71.

On top of this, he has finally taken the number 1 spot in career wickets amongst bowlers in the Canadian leagues. His record breaking season see's Pentland on top of the pile with 740 career OD wickets.

He commented that records at this point mean nothing to him and his main aim is to perform better for the Canadian NT team.

Despite a valiant effort in their Division II return, the Northwest Auroras fell just short in the final stretch, but showed promise throughout the campaign. However, the club did clinch the 49ers Conference A title on the final day and, after four seasons, secured promotion to the Championship.

POTS: Shafiuddin Faruq | Supporters POTS: Jimi Crow

The Auroras bid farewell to Kevin Bone, retiring at 38 after breaking five club records and holding four partnership records (Most Runs, Runs in a Season, 100s, Sixes, & Fielder Catches). GM Samuel praised him as “a fierce competitor who led bravely, unafraid to take a chance at a run.” Bone was POTS in S62 & S63.

Lastly, congratulations to former captain Ferrall Alu, who becomes the club’s first Hall of Fame inductee. More in the HoF.

Caliban Cricket Holdings has expanded to include a new franchise. The clubs and management responsibilities are now as follows

Canada - Eleven Golden Vampires (player coach Séamus Berra)
Sri Lanka - Field of Dreams (coaches Dubh Beenham and Lar Angell)
Pakistan - Vanishing Point (player coach Javeduddin Ahsamuddin)

Director of Cricket and Canada NT manager - Caliban

There was much excitement at HQ when the club announced the formation of a new franchise team, curiously called Canuck Chase, to be based in Canada. However, much of that excitement was quickly dispelled.

"I just like the name," explained manager ipfreely when responding to puzzlement at the new club being based in Nunavut, an icy wasteland for much of the year and pretty unsuitable for cricket for the rest of it. "There's lots of space and I'm told the locals are enthusiastic." No comment was made when asked if said locals are merely caribou.

When quizzed about the future of the club, the response "I just thought I'd have a go and see what happens" did little to lift the mood. It seems the supporters will have to settle for reassurances this won't affect existing teams' fortunes.

Today Canadian Bulls legend Kingsberry qualified for the BT20 worldwide batting average leadboard. Where he was insterted as number 1st in the world with an average of 196.06. He also sits at 4th in the world in BT20 strike rate with 190.50.

It is a proud achievement for the player who has represented his country on 30 occasions but is still chasing his first century for Canada.

That is all

Today marks a historic landmark for Canadian cricket!

Two default players on identical stats and paths have finally made it to the national scene. Pentland, one of the best spinners to ever play in Canada, has been called up to the national team - joining his brother in arms Kingsberry in the latest NT squad.

"It is an extremely proud moment for us, this caps a very long project to get both players ready for the top stage. LETS GO CANADA!"

Three current Canadian players have come through the ranks at Canadian Bulls with J Gair also being pulled by the world class academy - though he was immediately sold.

The team placed 2nd in Div II last season, a record finish, following a miraculous comeback in the final game of the S62. Hopes are high for the next season, the aim? The trophy

The board makes it incredibly clear that relegation was never the objective to achieve this season, and ensures internal reviews be conducted to clarify and improve upon the failures NWAU have committed within the fight for promotion, the Cup QFs crash, & missing out on a 49ers S13 Conference promotion spot two years running.

In other news, the Auroras celebrate BT20 promotion after 7 seasons in V.46. We are pleased to welcome Vishwamitra Guhan, and Cruim Cameron as they train toward U19 NT Selection. And Oct-21 signed Ferrall Alu has surpassed 125 matches as captain, sharing duties with last season’s appointee, Anthony Ludlam.

Finally, we thank Whitehouse(WK), Tennant, Hildred, Rahimi, Condo, Cudworth, Walton & Colfer for their service; the latter making 557 runs for U19 Ireland in S61.

Following the hire of a new Technical Director, NWAU have spent S60 making changes behind the scenes to align new values with fresh targets. Pivotal sales of Abbott, Nyagah, Price & De boer saw a trial and error process finding players with the right mindset. Defeats in key fixtures in S60 saw our TD and GM make quick, yet calculated decisions to attempt to fix the project.

The Auroras welcomes home former academy pull Lorne Macbean for a record signing of £4.9m to strengthen our bowling attack and we thank 4-club record holder Ross Von hoesslin for 5 seasons at the club. Ferrall Alu becomes AC, handing the arm band to Patrick Hildred. Samuel said, “The team is undergoing a rebrand and transformation, and time is needed to see the results of our hard work."

#AurorasRise

Swift Current will next season field a home grown lineup. With club Veteran Stan Elford moving on after 18 seasons with the club, academy graduate Kay Mccombe earns a well deserved promotion to the 1st XI. This means when the club play their round one fixture Canada Cup fixture all 11 players will have come through the club's academy. Starting from club veteran Camhlaidh Pace who will be playing his 424th OD match and commencing his 22nd season right down to debutant Mccombe. Absolutely astonishing stuff.

After 22 seasons and 427 games club captain Gareth Keith announced his retirement following Swift Current’s exit from the Cup.

During this time he took a club record 578 wickets and scored 3,121 runs. He helped the club win five national titles - three league titles and two cups.

He captained the club in 66 games finishing with a 49-17 record. He will be replaced in the role by opener Seamus Combe.

Veteran allrounder Gareth Keith has scored his maiden one day century. Something that most had accepted would never happen. The milestone finally arrived in his 21st season and 411th match for Swift Current.

Joining opener Séamus Combe with the side sitting precariously at 3/119, the pair added 253 for the 4th wicket. Keith was eventually dismissed late in the innings for 134 from just 99 balls. The faithful at Justin Bieber Stadium provided him with a standing ovation as he left the field.

Club legend and all round good guy Tim Lindop today retired aged 39 after playing 421 games for Swift Current. He amassed 18,650 runs, a club record he held until being passed in his final match by long time team mate and dear friend Camhlaidh Pace.

He was key member of the sides that were national champions in seasons 45, 46 and 48. He played in five cups finals lifting the trophy on 2 occasions in seasons 46 and 50.

Internationally Lindop was capped 13 times by the Canada U19s. He scored two centuries for the side.

NWA saw a record finish in their third successive Div II season building upon recent year’s strong performances.

Key roles came from retiree Damian ó Cearbhaill (Most Sixes, 41) with 819 runs, and Simon Marsden (Most Runs in a Season, 1439 in S55) with 567. High wicket counts came from O’Doherty (48), Aniani (37), Nyagah (32) and veteran Von hoesslin (31).

A crucial fixture against league leaders IndoCan XI saw us take a 4 point lead over third when the Auroras struck 10 and scored vital runs till the last over, sealing the win.

Elton O'Doherty takes both Young & Player of the Season awards before departing the club for a record fee. John struck 109 wickets in 4 seasons wearing red & blue as well as impressing at Canada’s U19 level. Thank you for your service Elton.

#AurorasRise

Swift Current created club history in the 3rd round of the Canada Cup posting 506/2 against Fort Saskatchewan. Seamus Combe (142), Camhlaidh Pace (167) and Julian Charlton (105no) all scored centuries. While club stalwart Tim Lindop made 87no in his 404th career match. The 57,994 fans in attendance were treated to masterclass in shot making.

Fort Saskatchewan fought on bravely before being bowled out for 104. Gareth Keith led the way with 4/22 from 9.3 overs.

John Davison, born May 9, 1970,is a former Canadian cricket captain and the man who broke the record for the fastest century scored in a World Cup. Jaideep Vaidya looks back at Davison’s career that spanned three World Cups.
What do players like Winston Davis, Trevor Chappell, Collis King, Garry Gilmour, Tariq Iqbal and have in common? Quite simply, they are one-hit wonders for their respective teams in the World Cup who failed to maintain the consistency of their performance elsewhere in their career. However, Canada's John Davison held more bragging rights over his fellow one-hit wonders. He was, for a brief period, the owner of the fastest century in the World Cup, one that came off 67 balls.

Elton ‘John’ O’Doherty will represent Canada for the upcoming season’s U19 World Cup fixtures.

From Yellowknife, John impressed in his trials before getting the nod to join the first team at the start of S54. He is a destructive RF Bowler taking 38 wickets and helped the team finish comfortably in two consecutive division II.2 seasons. Seven months on Canada’s U19 General Manager, Caliban sees the same potential.

Reporters caught Elton O'Doherty at the stadium this morning with this to say on the news, “I'm excited to join the lads in Toronto and start improving my game. Northwest Auroras have shown a lot of faith in me, and I’m going to give my all for Canada on the international stage!”

The Canadian U19’s team play their first fixture South Africa U19 vs Canada U19 on Sunday 28 August 2022.

Swift Current Penguins ended a memorable 12 season stint in the Canada top flight. During this time the club achieved 9 top 3 finishes whilst winning the league 3 times in seasons 45, 46, and 48. In addition to this the club reached a memorable 5 cup finals lifting the trophy twice in seasons 46 and 50.

Age has caught with the squash in the recent times as the club heads into a transition phase. Feandan Quinn is set to retire after 366 games and a club record 573 wickets. He will be replaced by young allrounder Hugo Dliza next season.

Club cricket, what's that?

After many a season of farming the Vampires have signed a wicketkeeper to play club matches, welcome Barclay McRae

He took over the reins from the charismatic Sir Viv Richards, under whom the West Indians had never lost a series. Moreover, the curious pun in their names and both hailing from Antigua didn’t ease the burden at all.

As a captain, Richardson had a completely different approach from Sir Viv Richards who was volatile and explosive in word and deed, while Richardson was a calm, composed, genteel captain.

He did not have the best of starts as captain as the World Cup campaign in Australia in 1992 was very ordinary. However, in his captaincy West Indies boasted the bowling attack of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, while Brian Lara emerged as world-class batsman.

In his four years of captaincy, he only lost one series; that against Australia in 1995