Weeks of waiting was finally over last Saturday as 10 cricket teams from across Rarotonga rolled on to the pitch for the first round of the Computer Man Championships.

Last season’s round robin winners Muri hosted Turamatuitui Tupapa.

Muri captain Bob Hunter was missing two key players in Alan Syme and Ben Cummings, however he only required two bowlers to do the damage to the flamboyant and always dangerous Tupapa batting line up.

2009’s bowler of the season Mike Hoff took up from where he left off last season collecting 6 wickets from his 3 overs, while experienced Muri stalwart Rama Taike took 3 at the other end as Tupapa, despite a quick fire 23 runs from Daniel, slumped to 64 runs.

While the rain came down the runs kept flowing as Muri knocked off the total with 8 wickets to spare.

The other side of the island was blazing hot and so too was captain of the new Titikaveka Titans Glen Hori Miller (35 not out) who bravely led his keen young side to within three runs of victory against Avatiu-Nikao.

It certainly wasn’t all easy for the Avatiu-Nikao side, despite a great opening stand between Chris ‘Papa’ Wicks (21) and Hamish Weir (15) then Tom Wicks (19) taking their team’s total to 72, and a superb bowling effort by Bruce ‘The Pukapukan Panther’ who took 4 wickets for 24 runs.

Another young player to come through Cook Islands Cricket’s ANZ junior programme is Seb Maher.

In his first senior match Maher was the stand out bowler for the Avatiu-Nikao side, bowling 8 overs on the trot and collecting 5 wickets for 17 runs for his efforts.

Maher’s bowling figures takes him into first place in front of Rae Ramanu as the Computer Man leading wicket taker.

Ramanu did the business for highly regarded Matavera captain Willie Tommy as Ramanu took 5 Takuvaine wickets for 19 runs off only 3.3 over’s.

Ramanu was aptly assisted by team mate Campbell ‘Digger’ Hockin who took 3 wickets for 24 runs, including the exceptionally difficult and rare feat of bowling a double wicket maiden (2 outs off one over for no runs).

Despite a defiant defensive knock from Stevie Ateala, Terry Williams’ strong Takuvaine side were eventually dismissed for 89 runs.

New Takuvaine signing Ula Teinaki provided his side with some stability in the batting line up as he effortlessly scored 23 runs.

Ramanu went on to impress with the bat as he and Koria Patia lead the chase for the Matavera side.

Playing a controlled innings Ramanu scored 36 as Matavera won the match in the 19th over with 5 wickets in hand.

Ronnie Forbes lead by example as he firmly put the Arorangi side in the box seat early on as he and Mamanu Emile (32) got off to a flier against a strong Turangi bowling side lead by Toutika Ionne (2 wickets in two over’s).

It took a superb Vane Tangimetua delivery to undo Forbes on 76.

Forbes’ 76 puts him on top of the table for the top runs scorer, one place ahead of Ramanu.

Chasing 198 to win, Turangi lost wickets early and not even star batting brothers Sepa and Vane Tangimetua could do enough to chase down the big total on their home ground in Turangi, eventually being dismissed for 101.

Bowling efforts from Arorangi speedsters Henry Geary (3 for 24 runs) and Kiri Yuetu (3 wickets for 16 runs) provided Arorangi captain Apii Mamanu with the pressure he wanted to exert with the ball.

New club side Tavana All-Stars would have been full of nerves as over half of its players experienced their first taste of senior cricket.

Tavana captain Matt Beasley won the toss and elected to bat first. Beasley (25) and Andrew Bullen opened the batting however the young side weren’t able to gather enough momentum as the consistent Tupapa bowling proved too good and the young side were all out for 83.

Despite a good bowling effort by Paes Kirikava Junior (2 wickets from 3 over’s), Tupapa’s batting line up was too strong as Pattiamai Ateala (30 not out) and Toara Teinaki took the team past 83 runs to win the match.

An appeal however in respect of the playing conditions has been lodged with the judicial committee to determine if their indeed has been a breach.

If you would like a copy of Cook Islands Crickets Judicial Process or Code of Conduct, contact the office on 20744.