ENGLAND'S cricketers might be feeling down in the dumps after their Ashes humiliation in Australia, but they should spare a thought for a schoolboy team in New Zealand after it was taken to pieces by a competitive dad at the weekend. Former first-class player Craig Findlay, 42, bludgeoned 307 runs off 115 balls against a team of demoralised teenagers at the weekend, but has come in for fierce criticism after refusing to declare during his rampage. Findlay, who is also the head of the Hawke's Bay Cricket Association in the North Island, turned out for Napier Tech Old Boys in the match against St John's College XI at the weekend. He hit an extraordinary 27 sixes on his way to a triple hundred before eventually retiring after 33 overs when his hamstrings began to tighten. By then the damage was done and his side eventually posted the daunting total of 578-6 off 45 overs. Opposition captain, 16-year-old James McNatty, asked Findlay to consider retiring after 23 overs as things were "getting out of hand", and even approached other members of his team to try and get him to stop. The St John's College skipper ended up using ten bowlers and later admitted "we were just glad to get off the field". But despite criticism from parents of the opposition and spectators, who accused him of destroying the youngsters' love of cricket, Findlay was unapologetic about his exploits. He told Hawke's Bay Today: "I played hard so that's why I won a lot... To create champions you have to be tough." He said that by playing he was offering young cricketers the "opportunity... to get a former first-class cricketer out". Asked if he would approach the game the same way if he was playing against his ten-year-old Findlay told the Herald Sun: "I tell you I also won't be cutting him any slack." However, Derek Stirling a former NZ international and chairman of the local cricket board said Findlay had "morally" gone too far.
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