There was only one century-maker in Ford Trophy round four as Auckland Aces skipper Craig Cachopa led his troops to a narrow win over Canterbury, with Chad Bowes finally finding his groove at the top of Canterbury's batting order as well. It was normal service for Wellington Firebirds as Andrew Fletcher and Jimmy Neesham went past 50 in their win over Northern Districts and while Central Districts Stags lost to Otago Volts, we got our first chance to see Josh Clarkson do what he does best this summer.

I start with Cachopa, the youngest Cachopa of the three brothers and thus Craig is the last one standing in domestic cricket. Cachopa hit 106 off 122 batting #4 for Auckland, dismissed going for a whack in the 48th over and received assistance from Michael Barry's 42, Will O'Donnell's 48 and a rapid 32 off 18 from Graeme Beghin. Cachopa's knock was full of his typical punches down the ground and through the off-side, hitting 9 fours and a six.

This was Cachopa's first notable innings of the summer, mainly because he doesn't play Plunket Shield cricket. Cachopa slides into Auckland's Ford Trophy team, replacing Plunket Shield skipper Michael Guptill-Bunce and this is exactly what Auckland did last summer as well when they won the Ford Trophy. That Ford Trophy success didn't feature many Cachopa runs as he went 50+ just once and averaged 29.77 through 10inns, with the bulk of Auckland's runs last summer coming via Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips and Jeet Raval.

You'd struggle to find a more interesting cricketer in Aotearoa than Cachopa, given the whirlwind he has been on since making his debut 2011. Cachopa spent time playing as a local for Sussex over in England and then came back to Auckland, where he now apparently operates as a limited overs player despite having a fairly solid First Class average of 34.83. This season, Cachopa has 195 runs @ 48.75avg/84.78sr with scores of 26, 49, 14 and 106.

Coming into domestic cricket, Cachopa was a bit of a prodigy and this is evident in his cricketing journey. I barely mention Cachopa in the Aotearoa batting prospect group now though as he simply doesn't make enough waves in his limited opportunities, not compared to the talent around Cachopa's age and younger. What Cachopa does do, is his job for the Aces and his leadership in guiding Auckland to a Ford Trophy title along with doing whatever is required of him, suggests that Cachopa is more influential than just the runs he scores.

I don't know if we'll see Cachopa kick on and find some consistency from this point on, although it doesn't really matter. What matters with regards to Cachopa is Auckland's success and if that means greater contributions from Cachopa while the likes of Chapman, Phillips and Raval are away, then that's what he will have to do.

In the same game, Chad Bowes pushed Canterbury up close to 200 in their chase of 271 with a knock of 96 off 109 balls. If there is any low key narrative I can suggest you pay attention to, it's the performances of Bowes in the Ford Trophy as he quietly goes about his business with a career average of 41.26 in List-A cricket. That's considerably better than the other formats in which Bowes averages less than 30 and with scores of 14, 38, 32 and 96 so far, Bowes is building into his work nicely.

Dismissed trying to ramp Auckland seamer Jamie Brown, 4 runs short of a century and at an awkward stage of the innings, Bowes fought off a fairly hostile Auckland bowling unit that also featured Mitchell McClenaghan and Danru Ferns. There is an effortless elegance to Bowes' work and he showcased nice all-round shots; Bowes swept and reverse swept offie Will Somervile (who went for 6.50rpo without a wicket) and regularly drove the seamers of the front and back foot through the off side.

We know Andrew Fletcher has the run-scoring munchies and 64 against ND gives Fletcher a trio of 50+ scores in 4inns. Fletcher is the only Ford Trophy batsman with three 50+ scores, thus he is the only batsman with 300+ runs in 4inns, along with being the only batsman who has faced 400+ deliveries. There's not much more to say about Fletcher, having celebrate him damn near every round of Ford Trophy cricket, so we salute Fletcher as the leading run-scorer and I throw up an undercover note about Jimmy Neesham.

Neesham chimed in with 86 off 67 deliveries for Wellington, hitting 8 fours and 4 sixes as Neesham tends to do. While Fletcher, Michael Bracewell and Devon Conway are scoring runs for a laugh, Neesham has been steadily chipping away with runs as well; two 50+ scores in 4inns in the Ford Trophy and a 50+ score in 2inns in Plunket Shield.

That's 6inns total, with three 50+ scores for Neesham. Yet Neesham is also whacking these runs with 120.27sr and no player has more sixes than Neesham (and Bracewell/Josh Finne) who has 6 sixes. Neesham has scored less than 25 in only 1inns in the Ford Trophy thus far and has also taken 5 wickets in 33ov, the type of all-round contributions that don't get a huge focus but stack up quickly.

Finally, we have Josh Clarkson who blazed 64 off 50 balls for the Stags as they tried to chase down Otago's target of 211, in a rain-reduced 32 overs. The Stags fell 16 runs short, despite Clarkson's efforts and as Clarkson didn't feature for the Stags in Plunket Shield, this was his first notable innings after putting up scores of 9 and 12 in 2inns prior.

This is nothing more than a note, perhaps a warning about Clarkson. 64 off 50 ain't nothing crazy, but when you have a 21-year-old who averages 40.06/106.37sr in List-A cricket, Clarkson could be hopping on the wave. The real fun starts when we move into Super Smash cricket as Clarkson's a monster in that format (30.60avg/139.09sr), for now though, Clarkson is showing signs.

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Peace and love 27.