2025/26
HALLYBURTON JOHNSTONE SHIELD
Round One 10.30am Saturday 16 November 2025
Round Two 10.30am Sunday 16 November 2025
• University of Otago Oval, Dunedin
Otago Sparks v Auckland Hearts (2025 Grand Final 'rematches')
• Pukekura Park, New Plymouth
Central Hinds v Canterbury Magicians
• Cobham Oval, Whangārei
Northern Districts v Wellington Blaze
The Hallyburton Johnstone Shield returns this weekend for another summer and the number one question to be answered this season is: will the Otago Sparks make it a threepeat, with a new coach on board?
The Sparks' former inspirational mentor Craig Cumming left for his new role in the UK partway through last season, and his replacement Gareth Davies has travelled in the opposite direction to take up the blue and gold reins.
He inherits not just the team to beat - the defending champion squad, but one that has won three of the last four national one-day finals, and they begin their new campaign with an exciting doubleheader at home, the place where they won last year's trophy, against the same opponent in a Grand Final rematch with the Auckland Hearts.
PHOTOSPORT
The Sparks aren’t the only Domestic team eyeing up an NZC threepeat this summer.
Canterbury, their defending champion counterparts in the men’s one-day arena, are trying to do exactly the same in The Ford Trophy, while both of the women’s national comps have a potential triple champion on the cards, given that Wellington Blaze have won the Super Smash for the past two years.
That’s a lot of potential threepeats.
What does it mean? It tells you something is going seriously right in each of those three team environments, with well balanced, adaptable squads and the experience to handle fireballs of pressure come finals time.
Never was that more evident than in last season’s 'HBJ' Final when the Sparks’ Eden Carson, shaking off illness at the time, got her side home in a thrilling chase, despite a good total from the Auckland Hearts after their skipper Maddy Green's century.
PHOTOSPORT
Green - set to play her 100th cap game for the Hearts this weekend, was on fire for the Hearts last summer with an Auckland record 698 runs in the season.
To put that in context, the next highest season mark in Hearts history is Sara McGlashan's 476 runs in a one-day summer.
The last time a team was on for a threepeat was in 2016/17, after the Hearts had won the previous two seasons.
The Hearts again made the Final the following year, but succumbed in a close game to the Canterbury Magicians in Christchurch — Katie Perkins (for the Hearts) and Kate Ebrahim (Magicians) both scoring exactly 100 not out for their respective teams.
PHOTOSPORT
So to find the last team that pulled off the threepeat, you have to go back to 2008/09 when the Canterbury Magicians succeeded.
Fed by its strong club cricket environment, Canterbury for many years dominated the Domestic scene and produced a production line of New Zealand representatives.
They hold the record for the most Hallyburton Johnstone titles (in all its various guises, over the years) with 39, which is 19 more than the next challenger, Auckland.
PHOTOSPORT
But the playing field has levelled up considerably over the past decade and a slew of new captains are eager for good results this summer.
Every team is in the race and the slate is clean ready for a whole new race to make the 2026 Final; to be held in Wellington on 21 February 2026.
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