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Tomarata United includes players from Tomarata and Mangawhai.
The homemade trophy has history.
The Tomarata Domain has been tidied up to be able to host matches.
An old trophy that has sat at the cricket clubhouse on the Tomarata Domain for years has been revived.
The “Battle of the Hill” trophy will be played for between Tomarata and Pakiri each time the holder hosts the challenger on its home turf, similar to the Ranfurly Shield.
It was Tomarata wicket keeper Nathan Brown who brought the trophy out of retirement.
As far as he can recall, it was made by a club member who took it to the BNZ Cricket Series at some point in the 1990s. It was subsequently turned into a trophy.
Last month, Tomarata and Pakiri played each other for the first time in many years, as this is the first season that Tomarata has entered a team in the Rodney Men’s Championship since 2005.
Brown first played for Tomarata when he was 18.
“I’ve been trying to get a team together again for a while. We recently had the fields redone to be able to host matches, thanks to the community chipping in,” he says.
Four Tomarata locals, who now live in Auckland, have been returning each weekend to play for the new team.
On both teams, a number of the players had fathers play for their respective sides, such as Pakiri’s Stefan Gravatt who follows in his father Bernie Gravatt’s footsteps.
Pakiri won the first revived Battle of the Hill match last month. Pakiri scored 191 runs for the loss of seven wickets in 40 overs. Pakiri then took just 29 overs to bowl Tomarata all out for 93.
