The Mid Canterbury cricket team represents the

Mid Canterbury Mid Canterbury (also spelt Mid-Canterbury and mid-Canterbury) is a traditional, semi-official subregion of New Zealand's Canterbury Region extending inland from the Pacific coast to the Southern Alps. It is one of four traditional sub-regions of C ...

region of the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, with its headquarters in Ashburton. Its governing body is the Mid Canterbury Cricket Association. The team competes in the

Hawke Cup The Hawke Cup is a non-first-class cricket competition for New Zealand's district associations. Apart from 1910–11, 1912–13 and 2000–01 the competition has always been on a challenge basis. To win the Hawke Cup, the challengers must beat t ...

. Until 1996 it was known as Ashburton County.

History

Ashburton County

Cricket in the Ashburton area extends back at least as far as the 1860s. An Ashburton team played a team from

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

in South Rakaia in October 1866. Shortly after the creation of Ashburton County, the Ashburton County Cricket Club was formed in September 1877. It was dissolved in 1886 and re-formed as Ashburton Cricket Club. The Ashburton County Cricket Association was formed in 1896. A 15-man Ashburton County team captained by Godfrey Harper played the touring

Australian XI The Australia men's national cricket team represents Australia in men's international cricket. As the joint oldest team in Test cricket history, playing in the first ever Test match in 1877, the team also plays One-Day International (ODI) an ...

in March 1921, losing by 10 wickets. The team began competing in the

in the 1950s, but never won the title.

Mid Canterbury

On its centenary in 1996, the association changed its name to Mid Canterbury Cricket Association. The team won the Hawke Cup for the first time in February 2004 when, captained by Robert Madden, they beat Northland on the first innings. The five clubs in the Mid Canterbury Cricket Association are Allenton, Coldstream, Lauriston, Methven and Technical.

References

{{Reflist Cricket teams Cricket teams in New Zealand Sport in Canterbury Sports organizations established in 1896