The Hawke Cup is a cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 competition for New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

's District Associations. Apart from 1910/11, 1912/13 and 2000/01 the competition has always been on a challenge basis. In order to win the Hawke Cup the challenger must beat the holder on their home ground. Teams from New Zealand's 4 "main centres", Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

, Wellington

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

, Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

 and Dunedin

Dunedin

Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...

 have not usually competed for the Hawke Cup, although they did participate for the latter half of the 1990s. They were excluded again from the 2000/01 season. Since then, the team from Hamilton

Hamilton, New Zealand

Hamilton is the centre of New Zealand's fourth largest urban area, and Hamilton City is the country's fourth largest territorial authority. Hamilton is in the Waikato Region of the North Island, approximately south of Auckland...

, the city at the centre of New Zealand's fourth largest urban area, has been the strongest team in the competition.

Recent history

Season	Challenge Matches	Holder at End of Season.
2000/01	Semi-Finals Hamilton v Canterbury Country, Hawke's Bay v Bay of Plenty, Final Hamilton v Hawkes Bay	Hamilton
2001/02	Hamilton v North Otago, Hamilton v Hawkes Bay, Hamilton v Northland, Hamilton v Canterbury Country, Hamilton v Manawatu	Manawatu
2002/03	Manawatu v Hawkes Bay, Hawkes Bay v Northland, Northland v Canterbury Country	Northland
2003/04	Northland v Hamilton, Northland v Mid-Canterbury, Mid-Canterbury v Taranaki	Mid-Canterbury
2004/05	Mid-Canterbury v Canterbury Country, Canturbury Country v Nelson, Canterbury Country v Hamilton	Hamilton
2005/06	Hamilton v Taranaki, Hamilton v Northland, Hamilton v Southland,	Hamilton
2006/07	Hamilton v Northland, Hamilton v Canterbury Country, Hamilton v Taranaki,	Taranaki
2007/08	Taranaki v Canterbury Country, Canterbury Country v Hawkes Bay, Canterbury Country v Hamilton	Hamilton

At the end of the 2009/10 season the current holder was North Otago, the second smallest association in New Zealand.
In its first defence of the 2010/11 season Otago Country (formerly Central Otago) beat North Otago to gain possession of the Hawke Cup. On February 13, 2011, Otago Country relinqueshed the cup in their first defence to three time winners Marlborough, losing by an innings and 171 runs at Molyneux Park, Alexandra

Molyneux Park

Molneux Park is a cricket ground in Alexandra, Otago, New Zealand. The first recorded match held on the ground came in January 1961 when Central Otago played the touring Marylebone Cricket Club....

.

Records

Current players can only play a maximum of 3 Hawke Cup Challenge matches a season, and that is only for members of the team holding the Hawke Cup and defeating every challenger. Historically there have only been between 2 and 6 Hawke Cup Challenge matches every year for the holders, so it has been difficult for players to build much of a record unless they have been part of a strong team and have had a lengthy career.

Nevertheless, 18 players have scored more than 1000 runs and 8 players have taken more than 90 wickets.

The only current player who has more than 1000 runs is G.G. Robinson of Hamilton. (April 2008)

Player	Team(s)	Career	Mat	Inn	NO	HS	Runs	Ave
Leggat I.B. Ian Leggat Ian Bruce Leggat is a former New Zealand cricketer who played in one Test in 1954. In 1952-53 he and Harry Cave added 239 for the ninth wicket for the Central Districts against the Otago at Dunedin. He also played for Nelson in the Hawke Cup.Leggat was born in Invercargill, New Zealand. His...	Nelson	1948-68	38	56	1	130	1968	35.78
Reade L.B.	Nelson	1958-73	35	57	2	117	1951	35.47
Lowans G.E.	Nelson	1958-73	30	48	1	130	1811	38.53
Anderson R.W.	Northland & Southland	1970-77	16	31	6	255	1773	70.92
McVicar C.C.	Manawatu	1935-54	28	44	1	180	1754	40.79
Spence D.V.	Hawkes Bay & Nelson	1949-67	34	51	8	151	1574	36.60
Robinson G.G.	Hamilton	2001-	14	22	2	268	1482	74.1

Current Structure

There are 4 regional zones in the Hawke Cup.

Zone 1	Zone 2	Zone 3	Zone 4
Hamilton	Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay cricket team A Hawke's Bay cricket team, representing Hawke's Bay Region of New Zealand, played first-class cricket between 1883–84 and 1920–21, competing in the Plunket Shield in the 1914-15 and 1920–21 seasons...	Canterbury Country	Otago Country
Northland	Wairarapa	Marlborough	North Otago
Counties-Manukau	Wanganui	Nelson Nelson cricket team Nelson cricket team is a cricket team representing the Nelson Region of New Zealand and currently competes in the Hawke Cup.Cricket was first reported as being played in Nelson in the Nelson Examiner in March 1844, in a match between the Surveyors of the Land Company and Nelson...	Southland Southland cricket team Southland cricket team is a cricket team representing the Southland Region of New Zealand and currently competes in the Hawke Cup.Southland as a representative team played interprovincial cricket as early as 1864, and later first played first-class cricket in 1915 against Otago at Rugby Park,...
Bay of Plenty	Horowhenua Kapiti	Buller	South Canterbury
Poverty Bay	Manawatu	West Coast	Mid Canterbury
Waikato Valley	Taranaki Taranaki cricket team Taranaki cricket team is a cricket team representing the Taranaki Region of New Zealand and currently competes in the Hawke Cup.Taranaki as a representative team played as early as 1877, later first playing first-class cricket in 1883 against Auckland at the Auckland Domain, with their first-class...

After a round robin within each zone, the winners of each zone get a Hawke Cup Challenge as part of the challenge series against the current holders on a rotational basis. For example current holders North Otago will play the winner of their own zone in the first challenge (or the second place team should they win their own zone) followed by challenges by the winners of zone 3, 2 and 1. The team with the Hawke Cup at the end of the challenge series holds it for the winter. Hawke Cup games are played over 3 days. To win the Hawke Cup a challenger must beat the holder outright or win on the first innings on the holder's home ground.

Former teams

These are the former teams that have played in the Hawke Cup in the past.
They are:

• North Harbour
• Auckland-Waitakere
• Auckland-Manukau
• Thames Valley
• Midlands
• Rangitikei
• Southern Hawke's Bay
• Hutt Valley
• Wellington City
• Dunedin Metropolitan

External links

A scoreboard of almost every Hawke Cup Challenge game ever played http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/NZ.html