Rain saves Central in premier competition | Rotorua Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Rotorua

When the umpires called play off at 6.20pm, there was a collective sigh of relief from the Central dressing room at Smallbone Park in Rotorua.

An hour earlier, rain had driven the players from the field with Central still requiring 31 runs for victory and their last pair at the wicket.

Scott Valentine, who had injured his ankle earlier, had hobbled to the crease but could only watch as his partner spooned a catch to point.

To the dismay of the Permaclean team the chance was grassed and the homeside were declared the winners.

Permaclean batted first on a slowish wicket and a 43-run opening partnership had them off to a steady start.

Central's bowlers kept the batsmen tied down, with Brendon Mahar and Vernon Roy picking up two wickets each as Permaclean got through to 110/5 in the 28th.

When Valentine badly twisted his ankle bowling the first ball of his over Kane Spiers took the ball and with his first delivery he had the wicket of Simon Dufty for 43. Eugene Moore took two wickets in one over and Matt McLaughlin cleaned up the tail to have Permaclean all out for 146 in the 43rd over.

Mahar and Spiers got Central through to 32 before Spiers was out for 15.

Mahar was batting positively but in the 15th over when he was on 33 he was dropped, unfortunately for the fielding side it was an expensive miss as Mahar took nine from the over.

At 80/2 in the 20th over Central looked well in control as Mahar brought up his half century.

With the skies looking more threatening Central were aware of the need to keep the runs coming. When Mahar was out with his score on 60 the home team were still comfortable at 108/4. But then came a major collapse with seven wickets going down for the addition of just four runs before rain intervened.

As the players waited, the umpires had their calculators out, and when it was decided that no further play was possible the home team were declared the winners with a run rate of 3.39 against Permaclean's 2.9.

Meanwhile, at Boord Park, Eastern Pirates put 263 on the board in their turn at bat against Geothermal. With the in-form Jarrod Christoffersen on 34 and wides contributing 22 Pirates reached 70/2 in the 15th over.

Geothermal put Christoffersen down twice before he was out for 54. James MacMillan batted well in making 60 and with Julian Danby contributing 44 and a hard-hit 23 from Brad Gallon, Geothermal were forced to use eight bowlers as they looked to limit the runs.

Pirates had two early wickets before Michael Parker and Shawn McGreevy came together.

With some bold hitting they had the team score on 105 in the 15th over before Mark Rawson took McGreevy's wicket when he had scored 31.

It was sweet revenge for the bowler as McGreevy had taken 14 off his first over.

Brad Gallon was plundered for 39 runs off four overs as Parker took the initiative bringing up his 50 in the 22nd over.

When Rawson trapped him lbw for 55 Geothermal were 139/5.

They continued to lose wickets to be 155/9, and the rain was getting heavier. With play likely to be called off, Geothermal had to bat only 30 overs and the game was theirs on run rate, but the last wicket fell in the 29th over to give Pirates the points.

Rotorua Boys' High School travelled to Taupo to play bottom-placed Wanderers.

Put in on a green top, they lost early wickets to be 20/3.

But a good innings of 81no from Matt VantLeven steadied the ship and partnerships with Mark Berry and Danny Tauarua saw the students through to a respectable total of 187 when they were all out in the 46th over. Wanderers batted steadily to get to 91/3 after 29 overs. However, in the next 16 overs they could manage only another 46 runs for the loss of seven wickets to be all out for 137.

Phil Anderson and Jason Trembath bowled 20 overs of spin for the students, taking 8 wickets for 70 runs.

For full results see today's Daily Post